The DDLA Episode 1 Captured and Liberated
by Jlgjt
Summary: A new enemy is rising in the shadows of Japan's underworld, can the DigiDestined stop him? Rated T for action violence with gunplay and intense emotion in later parts. All parts up! Some Part 5 material from Black Knightmon's story “Redemption”.
1. Part 1: Enter the Yakuza!

**JLGJT PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS...**

**THE _DDLA!_**

**Episode 1: Captured and Liberated**

**Part 1: Enter the Yakuza...**

Date and Time: Thursday January 29th, 2004 2:00am (New York time)

Place: An apartment building somewhere in Manhattan...

To an outside observer, the man moving through the apartment building's hallways would've looked like a typical janitor. However, this man had a mission, and he was rapidly heading toward the apartment number of his target...

He pulled out a walkie-talkie and pressed the talk button. He whispered into it "This is Alpha Agent, moving towards target location. Undetected so far."

The walkie-talkie responded just as quietly: "This is Beta Agent, confirming your status. Good luck in there, it'll make the boss' _year_ if you pull this off. Entering radio silence period."

"Confirmed." Agent Alpha responded. "Be ready with the getaway when I ask for it. Over and out." He holstered the walkie-talkie as he approached his target: one of the apartments.

The two agents had staked out this target for months now, and "Alpha" moved with nervous precision as he searched under the doormat in front of the target apartment for a housekey he had found out about through a bug he had placed inside the wall of the apartment beforehand. He found the key and carefully turned it in the lock. The door opened silently.

Reaching a hand inside to unfasten the chain that prevented the door from swinging open, he did so and silently entered the apartment. The apartment was protected by the building's burglar alarm system, but because of "Alpha" posing as a janitor he had gotten a disable code and was able to use it to turn off the system for that apartment.

Silently sneaking through the dark living area of the apartment, he entered the kitchenette and began a quiet, visual-only search for the safe. He found it in a relatively used and cluttered corner, and once he spotted it he went to work, putting on gloves and gently moving stacks of papers covering the safe.

Once the safe itself was uncovered, "Alpha" pulled out a tool from his belt: a wax key that could be gently heated and softened using a cigarette lighter and then inserted into a lock, form fitting the key for the lock and allowing instant access to the contents of the safe. He did just that, using a lighter that he had clipped to his tool belt; the key partly unlocked the door on the top of the safe.

However, "Alpha" frowned in the light of his flashlight as he saw another obstacle to opening the safe: a keypad lock. Because he wasn't sure if he could use standard code-cracking techniques without setting off an alarm, he decided to try a potentially less problematic approach. He grabbed what looked like a thermometer with a tip out front and a wire out the back end.

This tool, as you might have guessed, was wired to a battery attached to the tool belt, and as he touched the tip to the LCD of the keypad lock a brief spark of electricity jumped from the tip to the circuitry of the keypad lock, shorting it and releasing the grip that held the door closed.

"Alpha" opened the safe, and in the light of his flashlight he carefully pulled out some birth papers and a couple passports. Below these were some pieces of jewelry, which he quietly stowed in a cloth bag in hopes he could pawn them off for quick cash if he needed to. Below the jewelry was a heavy plate, possibly a lead plate, with several lights shining on it and what he immediately figured to be a false bottom painted on the plate. "Those lights are probably sensors of some kind.", "Alpha" thought to himself, so he again grabbed his electrode tool and with a careful application of electricity he shorted out each of the lights in turn.

As quietly as he could, he lifted the lead plate out. Beneath it and at the true bottom of the safe was what looked like two long boxes filled with CDs extending the length of the bottom. In each box, the CDs were packed tightly, and "Alpha" guessed there were about 100 CDs per box. The CDs in those boxes, according to orders from the boss back in Tokyo, were his target items.

He reached over to his left and picked up one of the large CD holders he had brought with him and, moving as quickly and quietly as he could, slowly began to pull CDs from the boxes and place them in a CD holder. He filled one holder that way, then another. Starting on the second box, he filled a third holder and finally a fourth. He had gotten all the CDs, but his load was awkward to carry...

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As he turned to sneak out with the CDs, "Alpha" accidentally bumped the safe with his foot, setting off a crudely designed motion-sensor alarm placed between the boxes. "Shoot!" he said to himself as he bolted out of the apartment, balancing his CD holder load and grabbing his walkie-talkie from the belt.

"Agent Beta, come in! Agent Beta, come in!" he loudly spoke into the walkie-talkie.

"This is Agent Beta. What's your status?" was the reply from the other end.

"I've got the target, but I set off a personal alarm in there. I need to use the getaway before they can get the police or activate the building alarm. Do you have getaway ready?"

"Affirmative. I'll direct you to where I am. Don't try to set off any more alarms."

"Roger that. Alpha out." "Alpha" continued to run down the hallway, now ready to listen to "Beta"'s directions...

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_Meanwhile in the apartment..._

"Willis. Willis wake up." a small green-and-white Digimon with very large ears said as he nudged his human partner out of sleep. Terriermon had picked up the alarm that had gone off, and now tried to wake up Willis.

Willis groggily responded to his Digimon's request, then in hearing the alarm he bolted out of bed. He entered the main room and turned on a light to find the safe open and completely emptied of contents.

"What's going on in here...?" his dad dazedly said as he stumbled out of the parent's bedroom into the now-lit main room.

"Oh my gosh, we've been robbed! Someone get the cops!" Willis' mom said as she stared back from behind her husband. She rushed over to the phone and dialed 911 while Willis ran over to the safe and looked inside it.

He gasped in petrified horror at the empty boxes that once held dozens of CDs. Those CDs were his darkest secret: the scientific diaries and instructions on how he had created the Digimon that eventually became Diaboromon, as well as "templates" he had come up with in order to create a full Digimon from raw data. This kind of power in the wrong hands could prove to be disastrous for both the human and Digital worlds!

Ignoring his parents bustling around him, he fell to his knees, on the verge of crying. Terriermon approached him and asked with uncertainty plain in his eyes, "What's going to happen now?"

Willis looked back with an expression that said "I wish I knew." What he didn't understand was who would know enough about what he had done to want that information badly enough anyway. He thought that he had escaped his sin when he saw Cocomon reborn, but now... who knows what was going to happen...

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_Outside..._

Agent Alpha sprinted out the apartment door right in front of a idly running car. As he approached the car, he saw it was "Beta" in the driver's seat... and heard the apartment alarms go off as well.

He flung the door open and threw himself and his cache of stolen CDs in the passenger seat. "Beta" took off as "Alpha" closed his door and put his seat belt on. "You got the target loot?" Beta asked as he drove onto the street.

"Right in these." Alpha replied, pointing to the cases. "You got the next flight non-stop to Tokyo?"

"Yeah, I can pull enough strings to make it happen, and get those things through security untouched by scanning devices."

"Good. Now please hurry before the cops come after us."

The car drove on toward the JFK International Airport, hoping that the agents could smuggle the CDs into Japan and deliver them to the boss...

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Date: January 30th, 2004

Time: 3:00 pm (Tokyo time)

Place: Main Room, Ankokuwa Headquarters, Tokyo

A high backed chair on a platform swiveled back and forth with some impatience in the center of the room. The occupant of this "throne" was Ankokuwa leader Giman Uirusu, anxious because he was expecting the culmination of everything that he had worked for over the past year...

Shortly after winning a fierce internal battle for leadership of the Ankokuwas in early February 2003, Giman had begun remaking the yakuza gang in his own direction, demanding tribute not just in money but in computer systems as well. He also began to expand Ankokuwa operations in pachinko and other forms of gambling as well as in loan sharking and fraudulent money-making schemes. Using the money that flowed in, he began building an extensive but secret computer network at a place only called "Hub X", buying and holding both the extensive number of "techies" needed to maintain the network and the equipment necessary to militarize the entire organization.

Within months, he had transformed the Ankokuwas into a para-military organization, focusing on internet attacks and using "traditional" activities to maintain a constant supply of money and computers flowing in. He had intended to use his combination of physical and digital force to knock down other yakuza gangs and specific target companies, but something happened to change this...

Giman became insatiably curious about the monsters that attacked the city in summer of 1999, and wanted to figure out where they came from so that he could have monsters of his own. This lead to him scouring media outlets for info, and in doing so came across a theory stated by the son of a Fuji TV reporter about "digital monsters"; through following that lead, he found out about the boy that created the monster that made havoc on the Internet. Sending two agents to New York City, he bugged the family apartment where the boy (Willis) was living and found out about the CDs to create one of these "digital monsters." He was now waiting for those CDs to be delivered to him, which would be the final piece to the puzzle...

The double doors in front of Giman were pulled open by two armed guards and Giman's excited "little brother", his second-in-command named Kobu, entered the room with a fast walk. He bowed slightly and said breathlessly "The target data you wanted has arrived, boss."

"Then by all means send it in to me." was Giman's deep-throated reply. Even off his throne, his deep voice combined with his perfectly straight and long jet-black hair, piercing green eyes and beak-like nose to give Giman an air of intimidation.

"Right away, boss." Kobu replied before leaving to fetch the two agents in. He returned with the agents, each one holding a holder full of CDs in one hand. "What you seek is in these." the agents said together, holding out the CD holders in front of Giman.

An evil grin spread across Giman's face. "Most excellent indeed." he replied. He snapped his fingers and one of the guards grabbed Giman's laptop and brought it to him. Giman took it and turned it on. As it booted, he also took one of the CD holders and opened it. He pulled a CD from it and inserted it into the laptop. The CD immediately autostarted, filling the screen with labeled diagrams of a Digimon and long strings of programming code.

As the pictures and code filled the screen, Giman's evil smile became wider and wider. Finally he loudly said, "YES! This is perfect!" He popped the CD out of the computer and returned it to the case.

"I want analysis and application of this started on immediately. Use every idle processor cycle you can get out of the network." Giman ordered Kobu and the agents. They all bowed and rushed off, leaving Giman and his evil smile in the room alone with the guards.

"With this, I could take over not just Japan, but maybe even the world!" Giman thought to himself. Such were his malevolent illusions of grandeur...

**What exactly does Giman plan to do with the data? How will the Digidestined respond to the theft of Willis's data? And... will it lead to conflict between the Ankokuwas and the Digidestined? Find out more in Part 2, "Two Councils"!...**


	2. Part 2: Two Councils

**Episode 1: Captured and Liberated**

**Part 2: Two Councils**

Date: Friday January 30th, 2004

Time: 3:30pm

Place: Indoor soccer field somewhere in Odiaba...

The field was a cacophony of Digimon and human voices: "Pass it over here!", "I've got it! I've got it!", "Someone stop him!" and other phrases to that effect. Running down the field with the ball was Hiroshi, intent on getting it past goalie Veemon and tying the 2-1 game. Beside him was Takashi, puffing and panting in an effort to screen Hiroshi from the Digimon approaching fast. Noriko and Keiko were on the other side of the field, zooming up that side toward the goal.

While all this was going on, Koushiro "Izzy" Izumi, Ken Ichijouji, Tentomon and Wormmon were watching from the scoreboard area. From there, they could see the entire field, and watched with enthusiasm as Hiroshi zoomed up the field. Takashi was trying his best, but was falling behind and two on the Digimon team, Agumon and Biyomon, were closing, intent on stealing the ball.

"Over here! Pass it over here!" Noriko shouted. Hiroshi looked up just long enough to see her, then glimpsed Agumon going for the ball out of the corner of his eye. Knowing Takashi wouldn't be able to stop him, Hiroshi made a powerful kick in Noriko's direction. It sailed past Agumon and Biyomon, landing next to Keiko and right behind Noriko. Keiko quickly passed it to Noriko, who shot it hard toward the goal. The ball sailed over Veemon's head and cleanly into the goal.

Immediately the entire field erupted into cheers, and Izzy pushed a button that sound a horn indicating a goal had been scored. Ken updated the score as the last seconds of the second period ticked down. The end-of-period buzzer sounded, and there was much animated chatter and high-fives between the older kids and younger kids.

Izzy got on the microphone and called the older kids and their Digimon together. Ken looked at him funny and said, "I thought we weren't going to assemble generally until after the game."

Izzy's face suddenly turned somber. "I can't afford to keep this to myself for too long. I didn't want to upset the younger kids though." Ken looked back perplexed but said nothing...

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The bright faces of the older Digidestined fell noticeably as they came in and noticed Izzy grimly hunched over his laptop. "What's up Izzy?" Tai asked. "Is something wrong?"

Izzy looked back and said "Something could be **very** wrong. Take a look at this email Willis sent me a couple hours ago."

The entire group crowded around Izzy's laptop as he read the email aloud to the group: "To Izzy and the other DigiDestined: This is an urgent call for help and a warning to further danger!"

"About an hour ago my time someone snuck in here and broke into the family safe. They left with some jewels, but also took my CD diaries. On those diaries were instructions on how I made the Digi-Egg that became Diaboromon, along with ways to make other Digimon based on this technique. I do not know who took the information or why, but I do not presume is someone with any good intentions. I will get police help and help from the other Digidestined in the city, but if the data has left the city it poses a great danger to both worlds and to you. Help me get the data back before it is used for something horrible!"

A wave of sudden dismay swept through the crowd, leading to many worried stares at Izzy and sidelong looks at each others. "You... have any idea what we should do?" Tai hesitantly asked Izzy.

"Until something else happens, there's not much we _can_ do. Shortly after Willis sent that email, Mimi sent me one saying that she had gotten the email as well and that she would alert Michael and the other Digidestined living in New York. I'm sure they will try their hardest to find that CD collection, but they aren't much more helpful beyond that. In short, we can't do much of anything."

Tai and the rest of the group considered the words carefully, then Tai replied. "Then what _should _we do, Izzy?"

"Firstly, don't let the younger kids know anything about this. To them, pretend like nothing happened. Secondly, I'm reasonably sure that this will sooner or later mean conflict of some kind, either in the real world or in the DigiWorld. And it will probably be against human foes. We'll need to be ready for this situation, so I want Tai, Matt, T.K., Kari, Davis and Ken to meet me later tonight to discuss how we are to react in case a human opponent tries to use the information for evil intentions."

"Why only those people? Why can't it be all of us?" Yolei asked.

"I'm not trying to exclude anybody, Yolei, but this is a very important manner we're dealing with, and only those who have the most intelligence or experience with Digimon I want to discuss this with. Frankly, this group is getting a little too big to call everyone together whenever something is needed to be discussed like we did before, so we need some differentiation to make things better and run things more smoothly. I hope everyone understands why I am doing this."

Yolei gave a puzzled look and scratched her head, but said nothing. Some group members stared disbelieving at Izzy, but knew he was right and so held their objections. Slowly the group began to trickle out and back to the field... except for Izzy and Ken, who stayed by Izzy's laptop, and Kari, who stopped in her tracks when she felt Ken's piercing stare go into her. T.K. glimpsed back when Kari didn't immediately follow him out, and so, drawn by curiosity, stayed behind as well.

Ken could feel the confusion reply to his implied urge to stay unnerve him slightly, but he was determined to not let that put him off. The complete answer to one of the most important questions of his life, "What was the true trigger for his redemption?", still was not satisfactorily answered in his mind despite the seemingly-satisfactory theory of Davis + Arukenimon appearing. He had both evidence and feelings that there may have been another factor involved, but did not want to let any other DigiDestined know about it because of what the theory would entail. He had been waiting for a mystery opportunity to take the next step in his investigating, and as sad as it was the opportunity had come. Ken would strike while the iron was still hot, just to answer his burning question...

"Something else wrong?" Kari asked him.

Ken proceeded cannily, suddenly feeling extremely awkward: "Well, I, um... I was thinking... I mean that I... I've decided to become a detective..."

Kari and T.K's faces lit up. "Well, that's a great thing! But why do you want to tell us now?" Kari stated.

"I... uh, wanted to wait until the opportunity was right, because... every good detective needs an assistant or two..."

Everyone else quickly picked up on what Ken was implying. "But I thought Wormmon would be your assistant." T.K. asked.

"Well, he is..." Ken replied, looking in Wormmon's direction, "but every good detective needs a human assistant, a Dr. Watson to my Sherlock Homes or a Sally to my Encyclopedia Brown. You understand that?"

Kari and T.K. gave Ken blank stares, but Izzy understood what Ken was trying to get at and stated "Ken doesn't want just Digimon assistants but human assistants." Ken smirked at Izzy's bluntness; it wasn't what he was counting on to make sure the plan was successful...

Kari and T.K. looked at each other and T.K. shrugged his shoulders. "Sure we'll help. But why do you need just us? Can't we all help you?" T.K. asked.

Ken flashed a smirk; he didn't have a ready answer for the question T.K. asked. He slowly began with something that popped into the head: "But... it would be too complicated to have everyone involved... I need to start small..."

"OK, but why the four of us in particular? Wouldn't you be better off with Davis and Tai or Matt instead of Kari and myself?"

Ken felt hot inside, and he hoped he wasn't sweating out of nervousness. He couldn't be completely honest with his, but he could give a truthful statement: "I have my reasons, and if you need to know them I'll explain them right now."

The others in the room furrowed their eyebrows at Ken's statement, but Kari said for him to go ahead. Their curiosity was a good sign to Ken, but he seriously hoped Gatomon (who Ken could see out of the corner of his eye) would not catch on to was he was doing too quickly. She was clearly analyzing him, but the only one that seemed to notice was him. Ken took a reassuring breath before beginning his explanation...

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Ken again proceeded cannily: "Well, Wormmon is here by default basically, but his attack involves something like spider threads..."

"So he could tie up the bad guys?" Patamon piped in.

"Eh, something like that." Ken said as he grinned back down at Wormmon. The Digimon just something like a shrugging motion in response, then perked up in something like a smile. Ken again hoped that his somewhat-forced grin wasn't picked up on too quickly...

"And my job is...?" Kari tentatively asked.

Ken turned back up. "Your job is to be my assistant, like I said. Gatomon is to help us in taking down the bad guys, smash down doors, other things a pint-sized powerhouse can do..." His nervousness was clear, and he seriously thought he was beginning to lose his composure, but when he looked back down at Gatomon all she did was stare back in her analyzing attitude...

"Right." T.K. quickly cut in. "And me? Why do I get the impression I'm going to be the fifth wheel is this arrangement?"

Ken quickly (perhaps too quickly) replied "Well, I can't be in two places in once, and Kari will stay with me, so I need someone else to be doing detective work."

T.K. smirked and stated with a touch of sarcasm "So am I just going to be monitoring others while you and Kari have all the fun? And why me in particular? You didn't answer that question."

"Because if I had Davis involved, everyone would think I was taking advantage of my new access to get Davis to hang with Kari." Ken replied, looking annoyed. "I don't want it to come off that way."

T.K. rolled his eyes. "That feud pretty much died with your 'empire'. I didn't like the fighting, and I don't believe Davis did when it came down to it. Let's just keep that old demon in rest, alright?"

"But you know how headstrong he is as well as I do..."

"True, but Davis has long since learned not to try flirting with Kari."

Ken made a shrugging motion, apparently intended to tell the others that he was not going to push the issue. "Alright, but I would still need an auxiliary. That's what you are. Patamon will also be in this position, and he and Tentomon will be our spies and recon."

Patamon's eyes lit up. "Neat! Does that mean I get to sneak around all the time and look through those neat things that make your eye bigger?" he replied, instantly causing giggles to break out across the room. Ken nodded through his giggling, not wanting to disillusion the little guy.

"I would not mind being recon. After all, I have done this kind of thing before." Tentomon added.

"I agree." Izzy concurred. "And I presume I would help on the technology end, with computer investigating and such?"

"You would be right." Ken stated. He then gave the others a few seconds to consider his offer...

T.K., Kari and Izzy each looked first at each other, then back at Ken, then finally at the Digimon. The overall impression was that of complete confusion on what Ken was doing, but that it seemed alright to be involved in. After all, not one of them, not even Ken, seriously believed that they would ever really work on a case, so it was collectively decided through an exchange of looks that they would humor Ken and join his "detective agency". Each one in turn agreed to join, pleasing Ken very much.

Afterward, T.K. and Patamon quickly left back for the game, now resumed, while Izzy and Tentomon stayed at the laptop, Izzy mumbling something about prep work for the meeting that night. As he tapped away on the computer, a slightly bewildered Kari slowly went back out as well. Gatomon slowly followed behind, continuing to give Ken that analyzing stare. When she was gone, Ken quickly pulled Wormmon aside.

"Do you think I did a bad job?" Ken quietly asked Wormmon.

"Could have been worse." Wormmon replied in an almost-casual tone.

"Do you think _she_ knows?"

"I can't tell for sure."

"Me either." Ken finished through a smirk. He looked back out at the field, but his mind was somewhere else completely: on whether his ploy to get to the truth had worked or not. If Gatomon had gotten wise, his whole effort may have been for nothing. But with an inconclusive result from the previous proposal, all Ken could do was hope for the best, and pray that _real_ disaster wasn't about to fall on them...

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Time: 6:30 pm

Place: A familiar school computer lab somewhere in Odiaba...

T.K. briefly looked around the lab as he did schoolwork. As he waited for the others to arrive, he started remembering all the adventures that had started in this very room. He could almost picture them talking around the Digi-Port they had used so many times... then something shifted on his head, breaking the reminiscence.

"Hey, stop that!" T.K. said as he slowly pulled Patamon back to a better-balanced position on his head before continuing with his work.

"But I'm bored! When are the other's gonna get here?" Patamon complained.

"I thought you would be interested in what Izzy and Ken are doing over there." T.K. replied, motioning towards an active computer terminal where Izzy, Ken, Tentomon and Wormmon were crowded around the glowing screen, engaging in discussion.

"But T.K., I don't even understand half the words they say, and I can't ask them to explain it to me, it would take too long!"

T.K. rolled his eyes and went back to his work. From the snatches he had caught, apparently Izzy and Ken were debating about whether they could, or even should try, to use the Digi-Port in this lab again. After BlackWarGreymon had sacrificed himself to seal the Highton View Terrace gate, the Digi-Port in the computer lab (which routed through that gate) stopped working. T.K. was personally opposed to trying to reopen the Digi-Port, but Ken was already promoting that point against Izzy's reluctant position of practical necessity trumping honoring BlackWarGreymon's sacrifice, thus leading T.K. to stay out of the argument for the time being...

T.K looked back up when he heard the door leading in and out of the lab open. He saw Matt and Gabumon; Matt did a quick wave in T.K.'s direction before settling down in one of the vacant chairs set up in small circle in a relatively open corner of the room. T.K. was already sitting in the chair opposite the one Matt was in, and both Izzy and Ken quickly came over and sat down in the circle as well, their argument temporarily suspended while they prepared to discuss the more pressing issue at hand.

Quickly following this, Tai, Agumon, Kari and Gatomon arrived as well. Tai took the seat between Matt's and Izzy's while Kari sat between T.K. and Ken. T.K. looked around at the others and noted the general somberness, but said nothing about it, recognizing the seriousness of the topic they were probably going to discuss.

After a minute, Davis and Veemon quickly scooted in, slightly embarrassed at being the last to arrive. Davis sat himself down in the last empty chair located between Izzy and Ken. Izzy looked over and nodded in the direction of each chair, and the meeting began:

"Thank you all for coming." Izzy stated, continuing with "As you are all aware of by now, something has happened that could gravely affect us in the coming days and weeks. However, first I would like that all of us share about what has happened with us over the past month." The others nodded, seeing this to be a good idea.

"Then I'll start." Izzy stated. "My parents already kinda knew about Tentomon, so the transition with us wasn't very bad..."

"Sort of knew, Izzy? All they remembered was that I was a big red beetle-thing!" Tentomon indignantly interrupted Izzy.

"Anyway, as I was saying..." Izzy continued, raising his voice to suppress the snickers that had broken out in the circle, "my parents are adapting fairly well to having Tentomon around, but there are still issues when it comes to things like citronella and flyswatters." Tentomon tried to give Izzy a deprecating look, but not having the eyebrows to do it properly failed miserably and caused the rest of the group to burst out laughing. Tentomon slunk under Izzy's chair, hoping it would turn attention away from him.

After the others had recovered enough, Izzy resumed: "But I have more news than that. For the past month, I have been in contact with Gennai, and he has told us that Oikawa's spirit has become the primary power behind a new defense shield of the Digital World. He has also told us that there is a possibility that the barrier made from out Crests could be dismantled and returned to us."

The last sentence instantly got everyone else's attention, particularly that of the Digimon. The prospect of having the Crests, years ago taken to use as a defense shield because of their power but in the process crippling the DigiDestined's ability to help the DigiWorld, returned to them was an exceedingly attractive one, made plausible by the failure and (now) replacement of the shield. Gatomon, who had hoped for those words more than anyone else, spoke for everyone when she asked "How? How could we get the Crests back?"

"Gennai said that if we could find a way to release the other Harmonious Ones, they would work together to dismantle the barrier and return the energy back to us." Izzy replied

"So what's the hold-up, Izzy?" Davis cut in, impatience and desiring to help his teammates out implied in his voice. "Why can't we do it now?"

"Unfortunately, we have no idea how to release the other Harmonious Ones. Azulongmon only escaped because the extreme warping caused by the destruction of the Destiny Stones weakened whatever held him in prison and allowed us the opportunity to set him free. We do not know where the other ones are kept, nor what is holding them captive. My current theory is that it has something to do with Oikawa's computers."

"But weren't those computers supposed to have been taken by Cody's family already?" Tai asked.

"They would've done so given the chance." T.K answered. "But they can't lay their hands on the stuff, even though Cody's grandpa is the legal heir to Oikawa's possessions, until the police say he is more than just missing. We would have to prove that Oikawa was dead before they could have access to the computers there."

The entire group immediately saw the obvious problems in doing so. Izzy quickly added "We don't know how much technology he possessed. His laptop went unaccounted for during the battle, and according to the police the computer at the cottage he owned on Mt. Fuji had been completely destroyed, apparently before he went back to the city. So we couldn't go that way even if we wanted to."

"What makes you think that something Oikawa did is causing that problem?" Matt asked.

"Because he would have been the only one that could do it. Ken does not remember anything related to the Harmonious Ones, so this was probably something Oikawa did behind the scenes. Also, when Cody went over to the apartment with his family, he noticed several large electric bills had been laid at the front door. He thinks that there are several computers inside which had been monitoring affairs in the Digital World and is keeping the Harmonious Ones in prison."

The others nodded, the statement seeming to make sense. There was little point in continuing further discussion on this topic until they could get a chance to convince the police to let them see Oikawa's computers, so Izzy turned the discussion over to Ken.

"Um, well..." Ken meekly began, "I haven't gotten any new contracts yet, so I'm still running on the money built up before..." He was referring to the fact that before he became the Digimon Emperor, his fame had won him several contracts with companies to promote their products, and with that came much money. This income had evaporated after he "went missing" and was defeated as the Digimon Emperor, and because of this companies had been reluctant to put him in new contracts.

Nevertheless, the "that's OK" looks from the others diffused the awkwardness and caused him to open up a little more: "Yeah, and actually Wormmon has proven to be more helpful than I thought." Wormmon looked up with a look of being vindicated. The others smiled encouragingly, and Izzy quickly asked Tai how he and Kari were adapting.

"Well, because we're the only household with two Digimon, we probably had twice the problems." Tai said with a sardonic edge. He quickly turned to a serious tone as he continued: "But it really was rough initially, I mean Agumon, sure he wasn't much of a problem, but Gatomon was rough, particularly when we had to tell her story to my parents." You could almost feel the room wince at that piece of unpleasantness.

"Wasn't it related to the fact that your dad had something on what happened four years ago?" Matt queried. Kari sadly nodded; both she and Tai wished to tell of Gatomon's mood swings, but because she was relatively "up" right now neither of them wanted to say anything. Agumon's smirk indicated the mood at the moment, and Izzy quickly moved on to Matt.

"Well, Gabumon has certainly been helpful with my dad, but I don't think he's gonna blow us to the rest of the world; he knows better than to use me as an underhanded source. Besides, hearing me tell my bandmates about Gabumon dissuaded him from taking advantage of his position, though frankly I think he was expecting to see something more wolf-like." Matt reported.

Gabumon looked up with a mean stare. "What do you mean 'more wolf-like'? I'm enough of a wolf now!" he loudly replied. Everyone else rolled their eyes, but said nothing.

"And before you start getting any ideas, there haven't been any talks of dad and mom working together." T.K. stated. This put attention on him, and he quickly gave a report. "Well, I mean, it's hard for anyone _not_ to like Patamon, and I think my mom wants to interview him or something like that, but mom and dad aren't talking together on this or anything like that."

"Well, that's actually a good thing." Izzy replied. "We don't want things to get going too far too fast. If we needed to introduce our Digimon to the world, we need to do it our way and quietly at first. If things get going too fast, things could get ugly." Everyone else nodded in agreement, for it was particularly important that a first impression be a good one.

"And what about you Davis? What have you got to report?" Ken asked.

The condescending tone in Ken's query prompted a slightly edged response in Davis: "All Veemon wants to do around the house is play with my sister!", he said, referring to older sister Jun.

"Hey, I can't help it if she likes playing with me!" Veemon's defensively replied. Davis rolled his eyes in annoyance but kept his mouth shut.

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"Alright guys, I think we get the point." Izzy said to cool off emotions. "It's obvious that each of us are adapting to the new year in different ways, and I'm sure that the other DigiDestined each have their own stories. But whatever we have gained now may be threatened by this theft of Willis' data. Taken from him was more than just the way to make a Digimon but templates on how to make many of the Digimon we know about. This information in the wrong hands could be used to rule either the Digital World or even this world!"

Izzy paused a moment to let the statement sink in, then continued: "Now before we have either fought in the DigiWorld with our Digimon against other Digimon or in the human world to defend humans against evil Digimon. Now we may be fighting against humans, hostile humans that would be bent on using the data that was stolen to advance their own ends. It is important that the public be on our side in case hostility breaks out in the human world. To keep the public on our side, we will have to agree to play by certain principles. These principles should be discussed here and now and agreed upon before anything bad happens."

"But why with only us? Why can't it be with everyone?" Kari quietly objected.

"Because to involve everyone that would be affected by what we are developing would take far too long. Out of the whole group, those of us gathered here are either the most experienced or the most intelligent out of this group. And everyone in this group knows this. They will understand why only us were chosen."

"Yes, but they can't vouch for the other DigiDestined scattered across the planet. And wouldn't they still object to being left out?" T.K. countered.

Izzy acknowledged the objections. "We can't include everyone in this process, it would take far too long. What comes out of this will be posed to the others and voted upon by them. If the majority don't agree on it, then we go back to the drawing board. Democracy, you see?"

The other humans agreed after thinking a minute about it, but the Digimon objected, primarily Tentomon, who could state more easily what the others thought: "Would we have an equal voice in this? How can we be sure we would be treated fairly?"

Izzy smiled and nodded. "You're objection is valid." he stated. "That's why there will be equal input from both humans and Digimon. This is the first meeting of 'The Council of the DigiDestined', which will govern all actions we as DigiDestined take overall and provide rules for acting in the human world, rules we can hopefully one day apply to the new world we have created!"

Even the Digimon got caught up in the idealism Izzy was positing, so the proposal was accepted eagerly. Thus began a long and great debate and politicking between the seven human members (Tai, Matt, Izzy, T.K., Kari, Davis and Ken) and seven Digimon members (Agumon, Gabumon, Tentomon, Patamon, Gatomon, Veemon and Wormmon) which after several hours produced a tentative document they called "The Constitution of The DigiDestined". Though the details are many and varied, the document emphasized several key principles that would direct any future conflicts with any human force:

**Never fire the first shot or throw the first punch.** Digimon are to be used as a last resort, and only in self-defense against a clear aggressor. An exception to this would be a situation such that the public demands an offensive attack against a known aggressor.

**All life is to be respected. **If at all possible, aim to deter or cripple, not to kill. This applies doubly to humans, both aggressors and bystanders.

**Any Digimon has the right to object to an attack plan that is not wise or feasible or violates 1 and/or 2.**

**Digimon are to be treated as equal as physically possible at all times.** This includes in decision making, political rights, public access, etc.

**Neither side may use physical power to oppress the other.** This goes both ways; a human may not oppress Digimon nor a powerful Digimon oppress humans.

**The sanctity and uniqueness of both human and digital worlds must be respected.** This would prohibit any colonization or development of the Digital World that would violate its unique character, though it does not prohibit development outright. It also discourages a reverse colonization of the human world by Digimon, though again does not outright ban it.

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After the rough document had been written up and signed, Izzy dismissed the Council. As each member filed out, Ken stayed behind, contemplating the day's events. First it was him getting Kari and T.K. and Izzy with their Digimon in the DDLA, now it was him being a member of this grand "Council" which was only really a committee designed to help organize and consolidate the burgeoning ranks of the DigiDestined as well as to enforce common standards, something that had never really been needed before. The fact that they couldn't play things by ear anymore worried him, and only added to the growing feeling that something bad was going to happen real soon.

As Ken and Wormmon set off to catch the bus home, Ken's brain danced with worries: worrying about whether Gatomon had caught on to his "ploy in a partnership", worrying about whatever had happened to Willis's data and who had it now and what their plans were, worrying about what was happening to the structure of the social network that had previously held the DigiDestined together...

It was all Ken could do to keep the worrying from showing on his weary face. He both wondered and dreaded what tomorrow might bring, what was happening to the new world that had been secured just a month ago...

**The DigiDestined are preparing to face an attack, but they do not yet know the strength and cleverness of their potential opponents. What will happen when the Ankokuwas strike? And has Gatomon already figured out what Ken is up to, and possibly why he is doing it? Find out in Part 3: Ankokuwa Rising!**

The full text of this document will be added as an addendum to this episode, so keep an eye out! ;-)


	3. Part 3: Ankokuwa Rising!

**Episode 1: Captured and Liberated**

**Part 3: Ankokuwa Rising!**

Date: Friday January 30th, 2004

Time: 7:00 pm

Place: Ankokuwa Headquarters, Tokyo, in the Assembly Room...

Giman Uirusu smiled in satisfaction at the crowd of loyal soldiers assembled before him. At least 100 loyal, valiant men stood at attention in the room, all dressed in the standard Ankokuwa uniform, a light grey suit with a dark red "A" emblazoned on the chest. "Is everything set?" he whispered over to Kobu, his assistant and second-in-command, who was currently standing beside him.

"Everything is set, sir." Kobu replied.

"Excellent. Then we shall begin." Giman stated, grabbing his pointer and military whip and proceeding over to the projection screen attached to the wall behind him. Kobu went over to the projection booth and manned it, as he was doing projection for Giman at this "meeting".

"Attention!" Giman yelled out in his military voice, a commanding boom that quickly caused the 100 men assembled before him to look straight at him and keep their gaze fixed there.

With attention now firmly focused on him, Giman started his "meeting": "Men, as I am sure you are aware of by now, 'Operation Download' was a complete success, recovering all of the target data. However, as had possibly been feared from the very beginning, a preliminary analysis shows that processing the data and production of the results would take computing power far beyond what our current network is capable of in order to be militarily useful. Because of this, we are proceeding on schedule with 'Operation Hijack'."

Kobu pressed a button in the projection booth and a picture of Fuji TV station appeared on the screen behind Giman. Giman continued on: "This TV station is 'target' for the operation. According to our inside sources, six students from the University of Odaiba will be at 'target' tomorrow during 10:00, to take a tour of the station as part of their studies to be journalistic majors. Our objective is to take 'target' with the students inside and hold them as hostages, trading them for the University of Odaiba's supercomputer, which will provide us with the needed computing power to effectively make use of the data we have taken."

Kobu pressed another button in the booth and what looked like a battle plan came up on the screen. Giman continued giving out information: "Most of our forces already have their orders concerning this operation, but I have chosen you 100 for an important, special task. This very night, you are to fully equip for battle and rendezvous with two of the trucks responsible for delivering the food and drink in the vending machines for that building. With help from drivers we have already bribed to help us, you will be smuggled into the building via those trucks. Once in the building, you are to wait for a signal."

Kobu again pressed a button in the booth and the screen changed to that of another battle plan-like drawing. Giman kept on going: "Sometime shortly before 10:00 tomorrow, two helicopters disguised as Fuji TV helicopters will arrive at 'target', followed a few minutes afterwards by our transport Chinook. The first two helicopters will surprise the security and drop off an initial wave of troops on the building, who will then begin to work their way down the building towards the students, assisted by the troops in the transport. When those helicopters arrive, you will receive signal pattern Alpha on your transmitters. When you receive that signal, you are to break out of the cover the trucks have provided and work your way up towards the hostages, making sure to secure the building from police entry in the process. You are to shoot anything and everything that stands in the way of your progress, and as quickly as possible neutralize the building security forces by finding and destroying their center of command as you work your way up."

The screen went blank. Giman looked down sternly at the audience. "I expect every man to do his duty. If we are successful, this will be the first step toward domination of the world!" he concluded his speech with. He then raised up his right arm, hand in a fist, and saluted towards his men in manner similar to the Nazi salute. "Hail to the Ankokuwas!" he proclaimed. He nodded in satisfaction with the loud reply by his men of the phrase, also accompanied by the same salute.

"You are dismissed. Please report to the Main Armory to arm and equip for the mission. Long live the Ankokuwas!" Giman said as a dismissal, again doing the salute as he said the last sentence. The men saluted in reply, then systematically began to march out of the room, the sound of the marching boots both music to Giman's ears and an ominous sound to any others that heard it...

Giman turned to Kobu. "Things are going well, I believe. Please make sure the support division begins prep work on the transport and both surprise helicopters as soon as possible." he ordered with a satisfied look on his face.

"Yes sir." Kobu heartily replied. He then ran over to a phone and picked up the receiver. Within the building was a special, military style telephone network that ran throughout the building. Kobu dialed the internal extension for Air Control, and as soon as he heard someone greet him on the other end ("What does the commander wish?") he said into the phone "Phase 1 Operation Hijack is condition 'Go'. Prep 'jack-in-the-boxes' and 'transport' for morning attack. Have all weapons in working condition and fully loaded, and stock both extra fuel and ammunition onboard. We need to be as self-sufficient as possible for this attack; we cannot afford to run out of supply in the heat of battle. Is that clear?"

Kobu got the affirmative from the officer who had answered the phone, and he hung up, passing on the affirmative to Giman. Kobu was many things, but a "flunkie" or the stereotypical dim-witted assistant he wasn't. Giman knew he could count on Kobu to fill in the details for the orders he gave so that they could be comprehensive and clear enough for his men to follow out properly.

"Excellent, excellent."Giman said again through that evil grin. Unbeknown to the rest of the world, the machinery of war was already being brought up to speed; its objective... conquest!

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Date: Saturday January 31st, 2004

Time: 9:50am

Place: Fuji TV Station

Hiroaki Ishida, father of Yamato "Matt" Ishida, looked over in disbelief at the desk of two of his co-workers, one a chronic worrywart, the other always buried in listening to self-encouragement tapes. "Come on guys! Those students are going to be here any minute now, and the way your desks look right now won't help our image one bit!" he exclaimed.

The worrywart, who was hastily shoving papers into drawers in an effort to clear off his desk, indignantly and loudly replied "Well don't look at me! He's not doing anything!", pointing to the other co-worker as he talked.

Hiroaki turned to that co-worker, who was carefully filing away papers on his desk into various drawers, his placidness added to by one of the self-encouragement tapes he was listening to. "He's doing his job." Hiroaki replied to the worrywart. "Just more carefully than you are."

The worrywart shot out a severely indignant look before continuing to jam papers into wherever he could find to fit them. Hiroaki looked over annoyed at the wall clock hanging from a nearby wall, then volunteered to help with his co-worker's desk (as Hiroaki's own desk was already neat and tidy, something he made a point to maintain, sometimes to the derision of his co-workers).

As he picked up a stack of papers and began organizing them, he vaguely noticed two helicopters approaching the building from a window. He looked up confused; "That's weird, we didn't send out two helicopters anywhere." he said to himself.

"I'll be right back." he said out loud to his co-workers as he went over to a wall phone and dialed an internal extension. In response, the two co-workers looked up at him and glimpsed the copters in their peripheral vision. They immediately turned and went over to the window in fascination, the co-worker who had been listening to his tapes turning them off and taking off his headphones.

Hiroaki spoke into the phone: "Get me air control division please?" he said to the operator. He was quickly patched through, and the person on the other end answered. "Air control division, what can we do for you?"

"Yes, I have a question." Hiroaki calmly stated. "Did someone send out two choppers earlier this morning?"

The person on the other end murmured to himself as he looked over his notes (indicated by rustling sounds heard on the phone), then said "I don't believe so. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I've spotted two helicopters coming towards the building, and they have the right shape to be ours. Could you check it out?"

The person on the air control end put the phone down for a minute (apparently to confer with whoever else was there at the time about Hiroaki's request), then picked it back up and spoke into it. "We'll send security to check it out right now. Someone high in the company may have dispatched those copters without having felt the need to tell us, but we'll figure out what's going on. For now, all I can say is that to ignore those helicopters and get back to your assignment."

"All right, thanks." Hiroaki replied just before hanging up the phone. He went over to the window beside his co-workers and stared out toward the rapidly-approaching helicopters with confusion and worry. They were now close enough that he could see the markings on the helicopters, which to him certainly matched the paintjob to all Fuji TV aerial reporting helicopters. This only added to his confusion, and he just stared at the copters as they approached ever closer to the TV station...

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_Meanwhile, aboard those helicopters..._

Of course, as you may have guessed, these were not Fuji TV helicopters at all, but rather well-designed fakes. The Ankokuwas had found and repaired two old helicopters of the same type that Fuji TV used, then deliberately painted them to look like Fuji TV helicopters, even from a close distance. These choppers were not full of reporters and cameramen, but Ankokuwa soldiers and sharpshooters intended to weaken the building's security and obtain a foothold in preparation for the arrival of the main Chinook armored transport which was just out of visual range behind them.

"Uhh... Alpha-One-Niner, state the purpose of your dispatch and why it was not logged in the dispatch records book as per company protocol?" the radio on the left helicopter (which was slightly ahead of the other one and thus presumed to be the lead copter) blared out. The left helicopter's pilot, a former military pilot now working for the Ankokuwas, responded using a name of pilot that was on duty that day and with a pre-conceived cover story about needing a hasty test flight in advance of the later demonstration of those choppers to the university students.

"Well, just make sure you log your trip in the records after you've landed. I'll call off security." the control person stated through the radio.

"Thank you very much." the front copter's pilot replied in an insidious tone, then shut off his radio before the control person could send out a reply. He immediately picked up a walkie-talkie which allow him to communicate between the two copters as well as the Chinook behind them and said into it "This is Alpha Copter. Entry to 'target' is confirmed. Status reports on Beta and Chinook?"

Both reported ready for battle. "Then we are status 'go'. Engage target with attack plan 'Hijack'. Will transmit Alpha Code to ground forces once engaged." the pilot replied to both of them as both copters descended to land on the Fuji TV helicopter pad.

The attack... was beginning.

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The few confused envoys that met the helicopters as they landed on the pad were given a horrifying surprise as, instead of the expected mechanics or executives they expected to emerge, Ankokuwa military men in uniform and armed to the teeth with machine guns and hand grenades leapt out of the helicopter and began firing bullets all over the place. The helicopters quickly took off again, each keeping a pilot and two sharpshooters on board. The sharpshooters began to pick off people who were fleeing from the soldiers and their rapid-fire guns. Several took refuge in the skyline-making sphere, but were quickly followed in and destroyed by several hand grenades thrown through the windows into the sphere. These grenades also blew apart both the weather station and a humble memorial shrine inside the sphere...

Any attempt to call security forces was stopped by the ruthlessness of the soldiers' gun fire, and security was only alerted to the trouble by the fleeing panic of people and the gunfire. Security made a valiant attempt to resist, but the hail of bullets quickly either cut them down or forced them onto the defensive mode of covering the evacuation of the personnel present.

The pilot of the "Alpha" helicopter, satisfied by the progress of the soldiers fighting below him, flipped a switch inside the helicopter, which began to pulse broadcast a code to a receiver far below him...

Inside those two food-delivery trucks in the basement below the building, the same code began beeping through a special receiver. The soldiers inside, who had spent the night crammed into the trucks and took only short periods of sleep, responded on this receiver by reversing the code order, which was to be their equivalent of "acknowledged." As soon as this was done, the soldiers open the trucks from the inside and poured out into the basement. The few security guards down there, already distracted by the chatter resulting from the attack above, were completely taken by surprise when this new force exposed itself and were quickly taken out of commission by the bullets of the soldiers. The soldiers then quickly spread upward and outward, shooting down anything that refused to get out of the way of their progress.

As Giman had hoped, he had caught those inside between two attack forces which would soon take complete control of the building...

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Hiroaki and the two very different co-workers he worked closely with first became aware of the attack (which started a couple floors above them) through muffled gunshots and screams, which snapped their attention away from wondering what the helicopters were about, quickly followed by a small crowd of panicked people from the floors above, rapidly fleeing the advancing soldiers. A now-alarmed Hiroaki managed to pull aside a young female secretary to get her to explain what was going on.

Breathless and panicked, she managed to barely get out the following sentences: "There's... soldiers... with machine guns...coming this way fast! I think... they were... from the helicopters... they're shooting... everybody... don't know... why... Get out of here NOW!" She immediately tore away from Hiroaki's grasp, and his worrywort co-worker quickly panicked as well and followed her out. His other co-worker quickly ran to his desk and grabbed his stash of cassette tapes before fleeing also. Hiroaki himself did the only sensible thing he could and triggered the fire alarm, hoping that it would encourage an orderly evacuation of the building and get authorities there quickly (he, of course, did not know of the troops coming up from below, who had by this point already sealed off the entrances, preventing anyone from getting in or out).

He then ducked behind a desk as the machine gun fire, countered by the occasional pistol shot reply from the guns of the defending security forces, got louder and louder. "What are those soldiers doing? Why are they here now?" he asked himself. The only answer he could think of was...

"The students!" he gasped, clamping a hand in front of his mouth just in time to prevent him from saying it out loud. As he later saw was the truth, he guessed that the soldiers, under whatever loyalty, were after the University of Odaiba students. He also realized that he was the only one who still was calm enough to warn them!

Heart racing, he jumped to his feet when heard glass shattering on the other side of the room. He turned to see two security guards at that end of the room, firing their pistols against what he presumed some soldiers who were coming down the corridor toward the room. One of the guards noticed him standing and watching and yelled over the gunfire to get out of the room just seconds before he was knocked down by a bullet from the soldiers. Hiroaki quickly responded to this and began running for the door which would take him downward, in the direction the students would be coming from in their tour.

As he ran for the door, he turned back to see the remaining security guard fire until his weapon ran out of bullets, then be hit as he lunged for his downed partner's pistol, which still had a round or two in it. Shortly afterwards, several soldiers stormed into the room and rushed down it, firing several rounds towards Hiroaki that forced him to hit the floor in order to avoid the bullets. He quickly scrambled back to his feet and zoomed down the stairs, heart in his throat as he heard one or two guys shout "Get him!" and fire rounds that blasted bits out of the wall behind him as he ran. The only despairing thoughts in his head were that of his family: his son and the partner he had which he yet hoped could rescue him as well as the woman and other son that he had painfully left behind which he hoped too might rescue him...

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Meanwhile, the University of Odaiba group was also caught in the chaos. In the middle of the building when the attack began, they were not immediately affected by the groups of fleeing people, but the fire alarm triggered by Hiroaki did affect them, and despite the panicked security around them the professor leading the students on the tour began to quickly and carefully retreat back to ground level. However, several times potential escape routes were closed of by security guards warning them away from using that route because of approaching soldiers. Because of this and the elevators being too risky to use (stray bullets had damaged electrical systems, making shorts and fires very real possibilities and necessitating shut down of elevator systems) they found themselves trapped on a floor, unable to go down but too afraid to go back up.

Hiroaki found them in this mortally scared condition, cowering behind a desk near the main control room. Still pursued by the soldiers, he burst into their room and immediately noticed the group. Breathlessly he shouted "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!!? THE SOLDIERS ARE AFTER YOU, AND THEY'RE RIGHT BEHIND ME! GET OUT OF THIS ROOM!"

"We can't get out of here! All the escape routes are blocked off!" a student desperately yelled back.

"What do you mean?!?" Hiroaki incredulously yelled.

"Security said that there are soldiers coming up from ground level as well! **We're trapped!"**

Hiroaki had only a moment to realized he and the group were screwed badly before machine gun fire caused him to duck and roll down toward where the university group was hiding. Moments later, three Ankokuwa soldiers burst into the room, looking for him and the group. Spreading out, one soldier quickly found the group's hiding place and ordered them out. Not wanting to be killed, Hiroaki and the university group quickly surrendered to the soldiers. The three soldiers marched the group away toward what Hiroaki knew was the main broadcast control room, hands in the air and gun barrels pushed into backs.

As they were marched toward the room, the building intercom came on with a macabre announcement made by one of the soldiers: "This is a member of the great Ankokuwa army speaking. Me and some of my comrades have taken over the building's security center. All security personnel are to surrender to Ankokuwa forces immediately and proceed to the security center for detention. Long live the Ankokuwas!"

The already-powerful grip of despair tightened even harder around the group, and the soldiers smiled and chuckled deprecatingly toward their prisoners. Hiroaki could see several students fighting off the desire to scream in utter despair, and he himself could only think of names and in fading strength as he was marched onward: "Matt... Gabumon... T.K... Nancy..."

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_Meanwhile on the helicopter landing pad..._

The Chinook landed on the pad, flanked by the still-hovering surprise helicopters. It quickly unloaded its load of support troops intended to secure the building from police attack., but left on board Giman Uirusu, Kobu and several soldiers guarding a large metal egg-shaped device.

Kobu excitedly approached Giman, yelling to be heard over the roar of the rotors of the helicopters and Chinook. "Master, they have taken the building's security center! The building security is surrendering!"

"Excellent!" Giman yelled back. "Secure the building from police attack. Post guards at every building entrance, and keep the copters and Chinook on standby in case police helicopters come by!" Kobu saluted and ran to the radio to give out orders.

While Kobu did that, Giman went over to the soldiers guarding the egg-shaped device and used hand motions to order them to pick the device up and then follow him out of the Chinook. The soldiers did this, and Giman looked over with satisfaction at the results of his attack scattered and smoldering around him as he led them down into the building...

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Time: 10:30 am

Hiroaki looked down with a defeated, despairing look. He had hoped Matt and his friend would've come by now and rescued them all, but perhaps he was expecting too much of them. In a kneel alongside the students with the soldiers' guns pointed toward their heads, all that could be done was hope.

Suddenly a door on the far end of the room opened, and in strolled an impressive looking man followed by four more soldiers carrying what looked like a large metal egg with a keypad and LCD readout attached to one side. Hiroaki was quickly forced to his feet by the soldiers and pushed toward the center of the room, followed by the students and their professor.

He watched as the impressive-looking man ordered the soldiers to set down the metal egg in the center of the room, and then each student was forced to sit down by the egg by the soldiers. The hands and feet of each student were bound together with heavy-duty rope, and then each student was tied to the other with more of that rope around their waists. This was done to the students so that they made a circle around the egg, in which the professor and Hiroaki was quickly added. As Hiroaki was bound, he asked the impressive man who he was and why he was doing all this.

"Why, my good friend, I am Giman Uirusu." the man replied with undertones of malevolence. "And I want something the college those students go to has. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I would let you go, but it is obvious you knew too much about my plan, so here you will stay."

"You know the police will not let the college negotiate with scumbags like you who hold people hostage!" Hiroaki replied in brazen but ultimately futile defiance.

Giman evilly smiled. "I'm sure they'll be willing to negotiate once they know what the terms I am offering are." he said.

"And what does that mean? What are you going to do with us?!"

"Would you rather die now?" Giman asked, quickly followed by a soldier placing the end of his machine gun's barrel on Hiroaki's head.

Hiroaki paused for a fear-soaked moment, then said no.

"Your cooperation is appreciated." Giman stated. He then ordered a soldier to gag each member of the group. As they were being gagged, Giman ordered another soldier to find a working broadcast camera and bring it to the room.

"Don't worry all of you." Giman somewhat mockingly reassured the hostages. "The broadcast will show the world how much the university values its students relative to its computers."

"Computers?...!" Hiroaki replied just before he was gagged.

"Tsk tsk, I think someone is thinking too much." Giman deprecatingly replied out loud, then whispered to a soldier that he was to shoot Hiroaki if he tried to escape or figured out too much about the plan.

Hiroaki quietly sighed behind the gag as a soldier was posted beside the group and other soldiers guarded the doors in and out of the room. Giman went out one door with a soldier to find a working broadcast camera and studio, and all Hiroaki figured he and the student group could do was sit and wait for whatever Giman was going to do next...

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While all this was going on, ordinary life in the city of Odaiba was being affected as well. As a result of the invasion, several channels broadcast by the station suddenly went off the air (due to accidental damage by Ankokuwa guns) and other live programs were rudely cut off when the Ankokuwas attacked the station, either through invasion of the studios or the triggering of the fire alarm; naturally this confused and dismayed anyone who was watching those programs at the time. Other TV stations quickly got word of the attack and sent news choppers of their own, much to Giman's satisfaction.

These other TV stations quickly began broadcasting live coverage of the invasion and takeover from their own helicopters, which made both Odaiba and the DigiDestined aware of the Ankokuwa attack. Everyone was riveted to TV screens as newscasters repeated what little they knew: "Some unknown but powerful organization has taken over the Fuji TV building for a purpose as yet unknown. Many broadcasts by that station have been stopped by the attack, though damage to the building itself appears minimal. Causalities are as yet unknown, and preliminary reports suggest that hostages are being held somewhere inside the building, perhaps related to this organization's unknown reason for attacking. Police are converging on the building, but extensive defense by the assailants will make any attempt to retake the building hard and costly. Until we get word from the assailants, which they might be preparing to do right now, this situation is at a tense standoff."

Amongst those hearing those words were Yamato "Matt" Ishida and Gabumon, who had been watching some Saturday morning shows on the TV when the news cut in about the TV station attack. It was like this for each and every one of the DigiDestined, and all of that special group were riveted to a TV screen waiting for news about Matt's dad and the intentions of this rising organization...

**The Ankokuwas have struck, and will quickly deliver their ultimatum for advancing their plans of conquest. With Matt's dad amongst the hostages, will the DigiDestined and the DDLA engage in battle against this militarized and ruthless foe?! Find out in Part 4, "Counteroffensive!" **


	4. Part 4: Counteroffensive

**The DDLA Episode 1**

**Part 4: "Counteroffensive!"**

Date: Saturday January 31st, 2004

Time: 11:00 am

Place: Broadcasting Control Room, Fuji TV building, under control of the Ankokuwas...

The hostages watched, helplessly tied to a large egg-like device, as Ankokuwa soldiers bustled around them, preparing the room for their leader's big broadcast. Standing in the center of the room near the hostages, the leader Giman Uirusu tapped his right foot impatiently; he had been kept waiting longer than he would have liked in getting a visual broadcast set up. Meanwhile, he had been feeding out audio-only broadcasts to the news outlets and police waiting outside the building.

Outside, he could see the buzz of activity and feel the tense standoff between his men and the police, neither willing to attack the other. Both news and police helicopters hovered around the building, the smoke from the initial attack sending wispy plumes into the frigid sky. There was little physical damage to the building itself other than the blown-out interior of the dome and bullet-filled walls, but damage to the electrical and plumbing systems made threats of shorts, fires and electrocution very real, which complicated manners for Giman. Nevertheless, he was determined to make his broadcast...

A TV camera from one of the studios had been hastily wheeled into place in the room, pointing toward Giman and the gagged hostages. Ankokuwa soldiers raced around, making a jury-rigged broadcast setup by cannibalizing the room's power sources, occasionally causing a control board or broadcast to go offline, only adding to the worry outside. "Is it ready _yet_?!" Giman yelled impatiently at his second in command Kobu, who was helping in wiring for the setup.

"Almost sir." Kobu replied, briefly looking up from his work. "We just need a few more connections for the camera."

Giman gave a half-annoyed look. "Please do remember that time is of the essence." he warned as an evil glint flashed in his eyes. "I want to give them a story they won't forget, and keeping them waiting won't make matters any easier."

He turned and gave a quiet, evil chuckle in the direction of the petrified hostages. With his men running around behind him, it seemed to the hostages that he could take over anything he wanted, even the world itself!

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_Meanwhile, elsewhere in Odaiba..._

The living room in the apartment reflected the general mood of the city at that moment: faces glued to TV news screens, waiting to hear news from those who had taken control of the Fuji TV building of their intent and what they planned to do with their hostages...

The four faces watching and listening to the TV in this particular apartment were those of Yamato "Matt" Ishida, Takeru "T.K." Takaishi, Gabumon and Patamon. After the previous night's meeting, T.K. had invited Matt (who would otherwise go home alone as Dad was pulling late hours) to sleep at the apartment he and Mom lived in, which Matt had agreed to. Mom had been there earlier that morning, but the attack had pulled her back to the work and she would soon likely begin covering "on-the-scene", though they had not yet seen her on camera.

On the TV screen, someone ran up to the news announcer and handed him a paper. He quickly read it over, then said out to the viewers "We have just gotten word that the hostage-takers have jury-rigged a visual signal and will broadcast a visual message shortly. We will now switch over to that channel and wait for that announcement..."

The screen went black for a moment (as did the screens of all televisions tuned to news channels), then a room with many control boards and monitors appeared. Some of the monitors and panels had been ripped open or shot out (shown by the sparking heard in the background), but the dominant element in the picture was a single, buff man carrying a machine gun and having a samurai sword strapped to his left side.

The man smiled and chuckled slightly through his evil grin. His face on TV screens all over Tokyo, he began his message: "Hello, I am Giman Uirusu. I lead the Ankokuwas and have taken over this building for the advancement of the Ankokuwa domain. I am holding eight hostages, six students from the University of Odaiba and their professor as well as an employee from this TV station."

The camera panned over to the gagged hostages, tied up to an egg-shaped device. Giman walked over to the device and stood in front of it and the hostages, continuing his speech: "My terms of releasing these hostages are simple. If the University of Odaiba agrees to fully and completely surrender use of their supercomputer to the Ankokuwas, then I will release all the hostages and remove my troops from this building. But if it does not do this...!"

Giman bent down in front of the egg-shaped device and began typing in numbers into the keypad on one side of it. He continued to speak, frequently turning his gaze back to the camera as he did: "This device I am programming now is a bomb, an explosive device that will turn this room into a fireball and blow out a chunk of this building. These hostages are tied to this bomb and will not be able to escape this blast." (As Giman talked, Matt watching from the TV in the apartment noticed his gagged father amongst those tied to the bomb and nearly fell out of his seat. He quietly exclaimed "DAD!")

Giman connected a few wires which had been hanging loose before and numbers appeared on a small LCD panel above the keypad. "This bomb is now armed and will explode after an electronic timer expires." he explained to the rapt audience watching him. He keyed in a few more numbers and "1:00:00" appeared on the LCD.

"That number you are seeing represents a one hour timer before the bomb goes off." Giman stated. "Once the timer expires, the bomb will go off and everything in this room will be destroyed. I have not yet activated the timer, but once it is active the university has only the one hour to promise to surrender it's supercomputer. If they do not, all the hostages will die!" Giman said the last sentences with a growl in his voice.

The city watched with horrified looks as Giman turned back to the keypad and pressed a small green button beneath the keypad. Immediately the LCD timer began to count down: "0:59:59","0:59:58","0:59:57"...

"I do hope the university will make the right choice in this matter." Giman said sardonically, then slowly built up to a full-blown outburst of evil laughter that was looped briefly as the screens flipped to a timer screen. Behind a timer which showed the same time as had been on the LCD before was an image of a dark red "A" over a light grey background; the timer digits filled the screen, menacingly counting down the seconds left in the lives of the hostages.

This image was shoved into a corner box as the regular news announcers came back on. The one Matt and T.K. had been watching said in a concerned tone of voice "Well... apparently that is what the Ankokuwa are doing with the building and the hostages. We out there and I in here can only hope and pray that the university concedes to Giman's demands before... eight lives, seven of them from the university, are snuffed out in the blink of an eye..."

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T.K.'s horrified face was broken when he noticed Matt had left the seat beside him. He looked around the room, but could only find Patamon, who was hovering beside him opposite where Matt had been. T.K.'s face now turned to worry, and he ran to his room.

He opened the door to see Matt hastily changing out of the pajamas he had worn into the clothes he brought with him. "What exactly _are _you doing?" T.K. inquired.

Matt incredulously looked back for a moment. "You didn't see?!?" he half-exclaimed.

"See what?" T.K. replied.

"DAD! Dad is being held with those students!"

T.K. immediately had an idea about Matt's intentions and said "You aren't going to try to rescue him, are you?"

"It's _Dad, _T.K.! Of course I'm going to go rescue him!"

"Matt, you can't be serious! There's dozens of those soldiers there, all armed with machine guns! They'll blast you apart!"

"That's why Gabumon is coming with me." Matt confidently explained. "He can help protect me!"

"From bullets?!?" T.K. exclaimed.

Matt scowled. "I don't care whether you think is crazy or not, but I'm going to try with Gabumon. And if you won't help me, get out of the way."

"But Matt, this is suicide, even with Garurumon!" T.K. exclaimed, trying to reason with his half-brother. Truth be told, T.K. deep down wanted to rescue his dad as well, but he thought that trying would only end up with him being dead.

"Then it will all be my fault if I end up dead. Now move out of the doorway!" Matt half-yelled, shoving T.K. and Patamon aside. Before T.K. could say another word, Matt and Gabumon were out the apartment door and on their way to the TV station.

T.K. pounded a fist on the wall in frustration. "He's gonna get himself killed unless he gets some help. This will take as many of us as we can get." he said to himself. He quickly went into action, opening the door and ordering Patamon to head down and get Yolei to help him. Patamon immediately rushed to follow Matt's path to ground level while T.K. rushed to the phone, picked up the handset and frantically began dialing the numbers for the other DigiDestined...

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Patamon, flying as fast as he could, slipped through a door behind another person into the stairwell and zoomed down the stairs. He used the same trick to get out into the ground floor and headed for the convenience store owned by Yolei's family.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it was packed with a mass of murmuring, worried people, all watching the news on the TV screen behind the counter. Patamon went over the heads of the crowd, looking for Yolei or her Digimon partner. When he didn't see them, he slipped behind the counter and through an open door into a backroom.

In the dim light, Patamon couldn't see very well, and he collided with someone, causing boxes to spill everywhere. Patamon saw who he had run into, a young man who he took to be Yolei's brother, turn absolutely livid and shout "Hey you klutz!! We're trying to get work done here! Can't you see we're swamped?!" The young man then took a closer look and said "What are you anyway? You know no one but workers are allowed back here! Now get out; we're busy!!!"

"Sorry, this is too important." Patamon apologized as he moved on, calling for Yolei and leaving the young man with a perplexed look. The Digimon spotted Yolei, slightly obscured due to the dim lighting, hastily stacking boxes in a far corner.

Patamon called again, and Yolei looked up in total surprise. She said "Patamon, what are you doing back here?! Can't you see I'm too busy to meet with T.K. right now?!"

"But this is an emergency!" Patamon breathlessly exclaimed. "One of the hostages is Matt and T.K.'s dad, and Matt and Gabumon are going to try to rescue him!"

Yolei's attention was immediately riveted to Patamon. "**WHAT?!? Are they out of their minds!?" **Yolei yelled out. Hawkmon, who had been helping her with the boxes, walked straight into Yolei's legs, causing both to fall over and send their loads tumbling on the floor.

Trying not to swear, Yolei turned around and yelled at her partner: "Hawkmon!! That's the second time today you've made me look like a fool!"

"But when you said you wanted me to lend a wing or two..." Hawkmon began apologetically.

"I didn't mean for you to Digivolve right in front of our customers!" Yolei interrupted. "Dad was so embarrassed he shoved us back here and put Mom out front! And now you've made me look like a doofus!"

"We don't have time to argue right now!" Patamon cut in. "T.K. needs to know if you'll help him save Matt from getting himself hurt real bad!"

Yolei glared back at Patamon as she began to pick up the boxes. She indignantly replied "Are you out of your mind as well? No way! Besides, even if I did want to go, my parents wants me to stay back here until the crowds go away, and who knows how long that will take! Tell T.K. that he's going to have to find help from someone else."

Patamon looked down at Hawkmon, who shrugged his shoulders. It didn't look like he was about to object to Yolei's position, so Patamon was out of luck. Sighing, Patamon began returning to T.K.'s apartment in superspeed...

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Slipping through doors, Patamon made his way back to the apartment as fast as his wings could carry him. He rushed through the opened apartment door to see T.K. shouldering the phone handset as he scribbled something on a scrap piece of paper.

T.K. looked up long enough to see Patamon return, and he briefly covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "Anything on Yolei?" he asked.

"She and Hawkmon are stuck doing work at the store." Patamon sadly replied.

"OK, we'll have to do without." T.K. replied. "Right now I'm on the phone with Izzy, trying to get everything coordinated." He then took his hand off the mouthpiece and continued his call.

Patamon listened in as T.K. continued scribbling and talking to Izzy: "What corner again?... Yes, yes, got that... by the school? Or is it...? Oh, OK there... Yeah, that's fine, just make sure to tell... Oh, Ken's already on his way? Great! Send a message to everyone and tell them to meet there... Tai and Kari have already said yes, but Sora's stuck at her shop, and I just heard from Patamon that Yolei is in the same situation... send it to everybody anyway, we need all the help we can get... all right, get going as we're under the clock here. See you there."

T.K. disconnected the call and quickly began dialing Joe's number. He noticed Patamon wondering what to do next and asked his partner to fetch his D-3 and D-Terminal, as he had a feeling they were going to be needed. Patamon nodded and went into T.K.'s room.

Joe's phone was busy. "Probably calling Jim at the university, seeing if everything is all right there." T.K thought to himself. Frustrated, he hung up and dialed Davis's number. As T.K. waited for Davis to pick up, Patamon returned with the D-3 and D-Terminal. T.K. took the D-3 and clipped it on the waistband of his pants, pulling his shirt down to cover over it. He was about to do the same with the D-Terminal when he decided to check it for messages.

Opening it, he saw he had a couple new messages, the topmost one being a message labeled with Urgent priority and coming from Izzy. He opened it and saw it was a general request message for immediate assistance for Matt and to rendezvous at the corner T.K. had been told about. Moments later, someone came on the phone and said, "Hello Motomiyas, Jun speaking."

T.K. recognized the voice as that of Davis's annoying older sister. He shoved aside his emotion and told her it was T.K. needing to speak to Davis right away because it was an emergency. Jun immediately consented and after an agonizing moment of waiting he heard Davis come on the line. "Hey, man, what's the emergency? I just got a message from Izzy saying that Matt needed help or something." he stated.

T.K. sighed into the phone with annoyance. "One of those hostages at the TV station is Dad. Matt's gone to get him out." he exclaimed with a growly undertone.

"WHAT? He's crazy! They've got lots of guns, there's no way he'll get out of this alive, even if Gabumon is with him." Davis half-yelled, no doubt drawing the attention of Jun and his parents to him.

"That's why Izzy and I are organizing this." T.K. stated as calmly as he could. "He wouldn't listen to me when I told him he was crazy to try this, so now we're gonna have to help him out."

Davis's response was firm: "I'm in. This is a team effort, no one of us can do this alone. Who else do we have?"

"Tai, Kari and Izzy have said yes, Ken's en route, Sora and Yolei are stuck working and I can't get in touch with Joe. I haven't gotten Cody yet, I was going to try him after I got with you. Please get to the rendezvous point as quickly as you can, we don't have much time." T.K. explained.

"All right, I'm on my way." Davis said before quickly hanging up the phone. T.K. hung up as well and clipped his D-Terminal to the waistband of his pants. He quickly dialed the number for Cody, then turned to Patamon and told him to be ready to leave as soon as the call was complete. Patamon nodded, then went to just outside the door in the hallway and waited there.

On the phone, T.K. heard someone pick up and say hello into the other end; judging from the voice, T.K. guessed it was Cody's grandpa. "This is T.K., could I speak with Cody please?" T.K. rapidly spoke into the phone.

"I'm sorry, he's not here right now. Could I take a message?" Cody's grandpa replied from the other end.

"I need to get in touch with Cody right away. It's an emergency!"T.K. desperately replied.

"Cody is out shopping with his mom right now. If this is because of trying to free those hostages, I've already tried to get in touch with him, but his mom's cell phone is off and I don't know if the message system you kids use will get to him in time."

T.K. let out a small growl of frustration, making a mental note to not underestimate the perceptiveness of Cody's grandpa in the future. "All right, we're going to have to go without him." T.K. stated. "Thank you anyway."

"No problem. Good luck and safety be with you." Cody's grandpa said.

"Thanks." T.K. morbidly replied as he hung up his end. He looked over at Patamon with frustration; Joe and Cody would have to come on their own.

T.K. grabbed a coat as he glanced back at the TV, the news announcer muted but the evil timer still ticking down. There were less than 50 minutes left. He put the coat on and zipped it up as he turned the TV off. He grabbed a key to the apartment door and jammed it in his pants pocket, then locked the door and pulled it shut behind him.

"Come on Patamon. We're going now!" T.K. beckoned as he rushed by his partner and opened the elevator door. The Digimon obediently flew into the elevator, and T.K. pushed the button that would take them down to ground level.

Tapping his foot impatiently as the elevator descended, T.K. briefly considered trying to convince Yolei himself, but thought better of it as the doors opened. He squeezed through the crowd in the convenience store as quickly as he could, and once clear of the store's entry doors he was off and sprinting toward the rendezvous point, Patamon flying just behind him. He could already imagine Matt on the back of Garurumon, zooming as fast as they could toward the fortified building.

"Matt, why did you have to do this?!" T.K. thought to himself in extreme annoyance as he ran...

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Rendezvous Point

40 Minutes To Explosion...

A tense cluster of DigiDestined stood at a street corner about halfway between the school and the TV station. Nearby were several big screens, all showing the countdown instead of the usual news stories and ads. People either walked slowly by or stared helplessly at the counter; they were so caught up in the trouble that they hardly noticed the unusual group that had converged at the corner.

T.K. looked up at the far-off Fuji TV building, several small wisps of smoke curling into the clear sky above from its top, and pounded his fisted right hand into his open left hand. He and Patamon had gotten there just moments before, and he didn't want to be kept waiting for the others. Tai, Agumon, Kari, Gatomon, Izzy and Tentomon were already there, but there was no sign of Davis, Veemon, Ken or Wormmon. And, as T.K. looked over to the countdown steadily ticking down and the background slowly fading to red, everyone knew that each moment wasted was anything but helpful to either Matt's crazy rescue attempt or their efforts to keep him from falling to the gun power of the Ankokuwas.

"Hey T.K., I see them over there!" Kari suddenly exclaimed, pointing behind T.K. He whirled around, and to his relief noticed Davis and Ken, waving to them from across the street. He waited impatiently as they crossed and arrived, slightly winded, at the corner.

Davis panted for a moment before beginning to explain his delay: "Sorry guys... but Ken stopped in before I left... and told me something that we all need to know."

"Well, let's hear it!" T.K. exclaimed anxiously. He didn't like the fact that Davis, Veemon and Ken (Wormmon had been carried by Ken) had already winded themselves trying to get here, but there was nothing that could be done about it now.

Davis continued panting while he explained more: "Ken got a message from Joe... while he was on his way here. It said that... he was in contact with Jim, and that... the college wasn't going to surrender."

The eyes of everyone in the group grew wide. "Now helping Matt out will be even more important!" Tai noted.

"We need to go now." Izzy stated. "There is a little-used employee-only entrance to the building that the Ankokuwa troops may or may not have fortified. This is the most likely way Matt will try to get in, and will use Garurumon to overrun or dodge any counterattack. If he breaks through, he'll work his way up the building and try to get the hostages free. Either we follow him into the building or we try an aerial approach and free the hostages ourselves."

"But how will that work?" Tai asked. "I would have to ride someone because I can't Digivolve Agumon to a form in which he flies."

T.K. was livid at the fact that the discussion was delaying them further. "Guys, we can work on this on the way!" he half-yelled. "We need to get moving NOW!"

"He's right, we can work on this on the way there." Ken stated in agreement. "Since Izzy's message told us that we shouldn't fly on our Digimon unless we need to, we'll need to run to catch up with Matt. Let's go!"

With that, the group nodded to itself, then broke out in a sprint toward the building. Everyone was running except Tentomon and Patamon, who were flying just above the rest of the group, and Wormmon, still being carried by Ken...

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_Meanwhile..._

Matt looked over in frustration at the crowd that had gathered behind a police line near the Fuji TV building's main entrance. At the main entrance, Ankokuwa soldiers and Odaiba policemen were in a stand-off, neither willing enough to attack the other. Other policemen had set up a perimeter around the entrance to keep curious on-lookers out of harm's way. Because of the crowd's size, this also meant that the area surrounding the entrance was packed tight, with little hope of getting through the crowd in any reasonable speed.

Matt looked back at Garurumon, the Digimon still panting a bit from the fact that he had run full speed with Matt on his back all the way to this point. Matt's frustrated face told enough to Garurumon, but Matt spoke anyway: "There's no way we can get through that crowd and the police as well. We're going to have to find another way in."

"Do you know one?" Garurumon asked in his growly voice.

"There's an employee-only way into the building. Those Ankokuwa guys may not be covering that one."

"Where is it?"

"I'll guide you to it."

"All right, get on." Garurumon said as he sat on his haunches so that Matt could climb on his back.

Matt glared at the Ankokuwa soldiers guarding the entrance as he mounted Garurumon again. He couldn't see if there was any reaction from them, but he was sure that Garurumon's appearance would not have gone unnoticed. Garurumon was soon circling around the crowd which, except for the occasional burst of surprise and shock from those who felt something go by behind them, generally ignored him and Matt. Once clear of the crowd, the Digimon zoomed around the side of the building...

**Will Matt and Garurumon find a way into the building and free the hostages? Will the DDLA's effort to assist be helpful to Matt? And could Ken get the answers he seeks? Find out in Part 5, "Truth Time"!**


	5. Part 5: Truth Time!

**The DDLA Episode 1**

**Part 5: Truth Time**

35 Minutes to Explosion...

The hurried pace of the six DigiDestined and their Digimon to assist foolhardy Matt Ishida had slowed from a sprint to a slow jog as fatigue and desire to have questions answered about Giman and his Ankokuwas took hold of their minds. Breathlessly the DigiDestined pondered what the deal was with Giman until Izzy made a connection that could only been made with this group.

"I... think... I have an idea... about... why Giman wants... the supercomputer." Izzy said through the deep breaths he was taking while jogging.

"Well... let's hear it." Tai replied in the same manner. Despite an increasing amount of fatigue, the attention of the entire group was turned to Izzy.

"I... think... that... Giman may have... been behind... the theft of Willis's data." he stated through the deep breathing.

"But... if that's true... then we could be... in deep trouble." T.K. stated with a mixture of alarm and fatigue showing on his face.

"Indeed... it took Willis weeks... to create a Digi-Egg... using his personal computer... but if Giman... has the same data... with a supercomputer... he could mass-produce... an army of Digimon."

Not only was the concept of mass-producing Digimon to serve as soldiers appalling to the DigiDestined, it was very bad news. Dealing with just a handful of malevolent Digimon was bad enough, but a whole marching army under this madman would be almost unstoppable, particularly if the Digimon got powerful enough. If this happened, Giman could take over the human world and perhaps the digital world as well. "Then... stopping him... is our fight... now." Kari stated through her jog, summarizing the thoughts of the group. She, along with the rest of the group, looked toward at the Fuji TV building, frustrated at their relatively slow progress.

All of the group, that is, except Ken and Wormmon, who had fallen slightly behind the rest of the group. Ken was lost in thought, but for a different reason than his comrades. For the past five minutes, he had been fiercely debating with himself about whether to press now for the answers he sought or to wait until the crisis had subsided. His internal debating pulled attention away from keeping up with the group, and now he had fallen behind a little bit. When the group noticed this and called for Ken to hurry up, the latter realized that the very act of doing the debate had almost made it irrelevant and that if he was to act he needed to act now., with their attention temporarily fixed on him.

"I was just checking my D-Terminal for messages from Joe or Cody." Ken stated as an alibi. That might have been believed had not Tai been peeking and stated that it looked like he was scrolling through old messages. (Unbeknown to the rest of the group, Gatomon's ears perked up when she heard Tai say "old messages" and she immediately became riveted to Ken. Only Agumon and Veemon noticed this sudden change in behavior, and they didn't know what to think of it. As attention was focused on Ken, they didn't say anything about Gatomon at that moment.)

Ken sweat a bit in nervousness; he needed time to find the messages. Pretending to be absent-minded, he looked up at the nearest TV monitor while his finger still pressed the button that scrolled down messages. The counter ticking down to 30 minutes, Ken was so focused on watching it that he didn't notice Tai state something and try to take the D-Terminal from his hands, pulling him away and nearly causing Wormmon to fall off his back.

Tai stared at the D-Terminal's screen with great surprise. Amongst the messages seen on the screen were messages done by a "PINKSOS". When Tai stated this, the others immediately shoved aside even the urgency of the mission and crowded around Ken.

The "PINKSOS" messages were something of a great mystery to the DigiDestined. During the short time period between the fall of the Digimon Emperor and the appearance of Arukenimon, several messages had been sent by "PINKSOS" to the D-Terminals of the DigiDestined at the time. These messages, typed in all caps letters, stated that Ken should be immediately added to the group, tartly condemned all of the DigiDestined who refused to believe Ken could change, and praised Davis for believing when no one else would. No one had confessed to doing this, and in the chaos following Arukenimon's appearance the messages were largely forgotten. Furthermore, all obvious suspects (Kari, Yolei, Mimi and Sora) flatly denied being "PINKSOS".

Apparently, Ken had not forgotten nearly as much as the others had, though, and for good reason. Judging from the number of messages by "PINKSOS" in Ken's D-Terminal, whoever was sending the messages was obviously more in contact with Ken then with the others, even though most thought "PINKSOS" would not have been able to find Ken's D-Terminal to send messages to it. The messages in general had become a "cold case", and just for a moment the others wondered if Ken had gone through the whole "detective agency" routine to solve the case. The messages sent to the other D-Terminals had long ago been deleted because they could not be made sense of, but apparently they struck a chord with the vulnerable Ken and he had kept his messages, no doubt to puzzle over until the case was solved.

Suddenly propelled by curiosity, the group almost completely forgot their haste of getting to the Fuji TV building and crowded around Ken and the D-Terminal. Izzy asked Ken that he read the messages out loud to them, which Ken agreed to (having caught on quickly that his comrades were as curious about "PINKSOS" as he was). Unseen by anyone else, a small satisfied smile played across Gatomon's feline face...

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_Meanwhile, at the Fuji TV building..._

A soldier wearing an Ankokuwa uniform and with a sniper rifle strapped to his back looked down from a window three levels above ground and noticed the large wolf-shape of Garurumon zooming by below him. He quickly pulled out his walkie-talkie and contacted his comrades near the back employee entrance: "Umm... I just noticed a large white wolf creature below me, moving fast toward the back entrance. Can I get some confirmation of this?"

Another soldier replied "Yeah, the boys out front saw it for a minute, then it disappeared around the building. At least now we know where it's headed. It could be police but I don't think so. We've got some of our guys already posted at the entrance, why don't you go join them?"

"Roger that. I'm moving toward the entrance now." the first soldier replied. He returned the walkie-talkie to his belt, then unfastened his gun from his shoulder and loaded it, pumping it once so that it would be ready for immediate use just before he smartly proceeded toward the entrance...

Down below, Matt stopped Garurumon and dismounted as they approached the corridor leading toward the employee entrance. His face curled into a half-scowl as he studied the emptiness between the corridor's two concrete walls; there were not even guards posted at the door.

"Something wrong?" Garurumon asked.

Matt shook his head. "I don't like it. I feel like this entrance has been booby-trapped in someway." he stated. "I don't want to go down there too quickly."

Matt's instincts were quickly proven right when, while Matt was thinking about what to do next, he heard a gunshot. Matt quickly ducked and he heard the bullet impact behind him. "**Snipers!**" he exclaimed as he quickly mounted Garurumon.

"Get to the door! Don't let a bullet hit you!!" Matt exclaimed as Garurumon charged full speed toward the door. Matt fell flat on Garurumon's back as the latter zig-zagged away from a few more bullets fired down at him. The bullets stopped quickly, and Matt was confident that they could get to the door when three Ankokuwa soldiers burst through the door and aimed their guns straight at Garurumon.

"Oh crud!" Matt exclaimed as the soldiers aimed the guns. They had obviously been the snipers shooting at him before, but they had switched positions when they couldn't stop him in the corridor and now were trying to take him down at the door.

Fortunately, Garurumon, already moving at full speed, knew what he could do. He pushed hard and made a powerful leap just before the soldiers could fire. The bullets whizzed by harmlessly under his belly as he counterattacked with a blast of his own: "**Howling Blaster!"**

Though not a full-on impact, the blue stream of energy from Garurumon's mouth was enough to knock the gunmen into the door behind them. The soldier in the center hit the door hard enough to break it open, while the ones flanking him hit the doorposts and were knocked out cold, splaying on the scorched concrete in front of the door. Garurumon landed, screeching to a halt and leaving gouge marks in the concrete from his claws. Matt hopped off and walked through the door, over to the gunman that had been blasted through it.

Fire filled Matt's eyes as he went down on both knees and pulled the gunman's face to meet his own. "**Where are the hostages?**" Matt yelled in his face.

The gunman, unfortunately, had been reduced to a dizzy, stammering state by what had just happened, and all he did was fearfully point in Garurumon's direction while all that came out of his mouth was indistinct syllables of speech. Matt's face turned even more angry-red and he repeated his question even louder: "**WHERE ARE THE HOSTAGES?**"

When the gunman continued to stammer, Matt dropped him and stood up, giving an extremely frustrated look to Garurumon. "He's not going to be of any help." Matt concluded as he picked up the gunman's sniper rifle. Matt glared back at the man before tossing the gun in Garurumon's direction. To the man's horror, he saw the huge wolf catch the gun in his mouth, then crunched down on it. The gun, now reduced to broken hunk of metal covered with large teeth marks and saliva, was quickly dropped onto the ground and the gunman passed out, fainting as a result of what he had seen...

Matt took a quick look a little further into the building before calling back to Garurumon. "It's all right, there doesn't seem to be any more of those soldiers here."

"Oh good." Garurumon said just before reverting back to Gabumon. Gabumon walked through the door (which would have been difficult if not impossible to do as Champion level Garurumon) and stated "I was wondering how I was going to get up those stairs."

Matt briefly smirked at Gabumon's statement before returning to his determined expression. "Come on. We're going to have to get to the hostages ourselves." he said loudly to Gabumon just before they went through a door and rapidly started up some stairs, leaving the scene of the confrontation deserted and eerily quiet...

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25 Minutes to Explosion...

Despite the "death clock" ticking down behind them, the group of DigiDestined which had set out to help Matt had now been sidetracked into a cul-de-sac alley by the sudden reappearance of the mysterious message-sender "PINKSOS", combined with the nagging feeling that something "earthshaking" was going to get revealed with those messages...

Everyone in the group had listened with eagerness and curiosity as Ken carefully began reading out the messages "PINKSOS" had sent him all those months ago, during the confusion surrounding the fall of the Digimon Emperor guise Ken had been twisted into assuming. Because the messenger had been far more involved with Ken then had been assumed, the previous theories that had been developed now were more or less thrown out the window, and there didn't seem to be anything that would replace those theories, leaving the group completely clueless and intensely curious about the messages Ken had received.

As it turned out, Ken had not only received copies of all the messages that had been sent to the other DigiDestined (which according to Ken had both shown him "the enormous problems of his integration" but "that he had friends that could help him", a reassuring comfort that he took with him when he met with Davis shortly after revealing himself in lieu of Arukenimon's actions), but also a story which spread over many messages, most sent apparently during the time period in which Ken had laid in a semi-coma after returning from the DigiWorld following his defeat as the Digimon Emperor.

The messages containing the story, which was called "The Vampire and the Feline" (and somehow seemed vaguely familiar to the group), had been a surprisingly important factor in causing Ken to reveal himself and eventually join the team. The group already knew that Arunkenimon had confronted him once shortly after he awoke from the near-coma, but now Ken told that after that incident Arukenimon appeared again and had lured him into the DigiWorld, there first revealing to him her abilities to change Control Spires to Digimon, unleashing a fake Garurumon on him and causing Wormmon to Digivolve to Stingmon the first time, saving Ken from an otherwise fatal fall off a cliff.

Stingmon defeated the fake Digimon and together with Ken looked for Arukenimon over the course of the following few days, starting to destroy Control Spires as they did so. While they did this, Ken agonized over whether or not to try to get in contact with the DigiDestined that had just beaten him, torn between his desire to alert them to the new foe (and, more importantly, also to show his change was sincere) and the dread that they would not forgive him and refuse to have him as a new ally.

The messages and story, as Ken now said, "tipped the balance" in favor of trying to get in touch with the DigiDestined because they gave him the confidence that he "had friends that were willing to help" in the group and that certain DigiDestined would accept him "because they accepted someone who had been in a situation like yours". Though the DigiDestined found out about the artificial Digimon on their own, Ken now stated that without the messages he may never have revealed himself and Stingmon to them, thus allowing the group to fully understand the impact the messages had and Ken's wish to "richly reward" whoever "PINKSOS" was.

All the time Ken was talking, the group had been listening raptly, only giving slight thought to the clock still ticking and Matt and the hostages. Had someone been paying attention to the group, they would have noticed Gatomon giving a slowly-expanding smile, but so rapt was the group in Ken's tellings that they all missed what she was doing...

That is, until Ken was finishing reading his messages. The story had brought both Ken and Wormmon (who had seen the story as well) nearly to the point of contacting the DigiDestined right then and there, just to see where "PINKSOS" was amongst them. He said that the story gave him the hope he needed to make an appearance worth doing, because as Ken said, "he could see himself as the cat, twisted to an evil purpose but with someone willing to set things right" and comparing the cat's friend to "PINKSOS". Now he wished to know the identity of the one that gave him such hope, made him and Wormmon cry tears of hopeful joy at the grace being shown him, and ultimately helped redeem him.

The moment finally came when Ken read the final message which told the story. Even now the story still caused him to mist up, and he read slowly, trying not to choke as he did so: "The vampire... attacked with all his strength... The 7 warriors could do nothing... to stop the cat from being killed... But the friend loved too much... and took the attack for her... As he lay dying, the cat was grateful... for having such a friend... and the friend was grateful... that he had saved her... The death of such a friend... caused a great power to appear and..."

Ken stopped rather abruptly because he thought he heard someone begin to echo him as he spoke, and he was sure that no one in the group could have known what those messages (which he had kept very private until this point) had said. All eyes turned in shock down to Gatomon, who had been the one echoing Ken's speech.

She was grinning broadly, eyes sparkling, and she continued speaking with confidence: "...and the great power caused the cat to become an angel, a warrior of warriors. With the help of the other 7 warriors, now her friends and not enemies, she struck down the vampire with an arrow of justice. Though he rose again, the life of the cat's truest friend had bought her freedom and returned her to her intended purpose..."

Numbly, Ken scrolled through the message on the D-Terminal as Gatomon continued talking: "You see, if a cat that had committed as many sins as you had can be redeemed, why not you? Take heart, for you have those that care for you amongst the DigiDestined. Davis will not turn you away, and neither will I. Come find Davis, come find me. Let us help you like the friend helped the cat, for I am convinced that in you there is an angel as well. Show us where you are and we will help you. Do not despair of your situation, for you can be saved as much as that cat was. Find us, for we are willing to help you despite your sins."

Ken stared back in dumb-founded shock back and forth between Gatomon, who smiled back at him with moist eyes. She had repeated the last half of that message **word-for-word**, and there was no escaping the fact that she had all but confessed to being "PINKSOS", the one that had provided so much comfort and hope during a critical point in Ken's story and in fact been a major factor in redeeming Ken...

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The entire rest of the group stared at Gatomon in dumb-founded astonishment. As if a mental block had been lifted, the mystery surrounding "PINKSOS" almost solved itself. Gatomon made the most sense to be the sender of those messages, having seen herself in Ken, and the story was a veiled version of her own, told to convince Ken that he could be saved like she had been.

Ken, having been profoundly moved, felt his sense of time slow almost to a stop as he, wearing a face that mixed astonishment, confusion and gratitude, slowly walked over to and knelt down in front of Gatomon, taking one of her paws between his own hands.

Quietly, almost in a whisper, he said to her "It was you then. You were the one that sent those messages!" Gatomon nodded through a smile as bright as the sun, and there now was no doubt she had been "PINKSOS".

Ken then asked, his eyes firmly locked looking into Gatomon's own, "But... why? How? Why did you keep this secret for so long?"

"I did it because I saw myself in you, and I did not want to see you suffer in thinking you could not be saved, as you know now we are very much alike and I had been saved from a situation like yours. I did not want to keep my feelings secret, but I did it this way because my opinion was not asked for and I knew time was of the essence."

The sideways scowl and mean glare given to the others in the group when Gatomon said the last sentence caused an immediate, deflationary collapse of mood in all except Davis and Veemon. The group knew why Gatomon had acted the way she did: not once during the whole debate of Ken's inclusion into the group had a Digimon's opinion been asked. The unspoken assumption of a universal negative opinion amongst the Digimon during that time had now been proven wrong, and this cut into the human members of the group like acid, for they knew deep down it had been an excuse to marginalize the Digimon in decision making process, something they **knew **was wrong but did anyway. Particularly for T.K. and Kari, the overall implication of Gatomon's words where "you should've known this was going to happen!", which was more true than was comfortable admitting. Only Davis and Veemon did not bow their heads in shame and embarrassment as the DigiDestined realized how hypocritical they had been in not asking or valuing the opinions of the Digimon and leading to Gatomon's "backdoor" means of helping Ken.

Once the initial wave of condemnation had passed, Gatomon quietly explained that she had borrowed Kari's Digivice in the middle of the night after Ken's defeat as the Digimon Emperor and sent the messages from there using a method that was only supposed to be for emergencies. "What method?" Ken asked.

Gatomon looked over to Kari, who in turn looked over to Izzy. All other eyes went to Izzy as well, who flushed even more as he sheepishly began to explain what Gatomon was talking about: "Well, um, you see, after the first encounter with the Dark Ocean, I talked with Gennai about a way for Kari to alert others should she be trapped in the dimension alone again. In a private meeting with Kari, I showed her a way to activate a function that would allow her to create and send short distress messages from her D-3 to any D-Terminal. Because this function prevents the D-3 from doing anything else while in use, not even helping in Digivolving, I didn't want anyone but Kari and myself to know about it, not even Gatomon, but I guess Gatomon snuck in and hid herself while I wasn't looking and overheard what I told about the system. Because Kari was not alone the next time she entered the Dark Ocean dimension, she never used the system, and until now no one besides Kari, myself and now Gatomon knew that this function even existed. When I first saw the 'PINKSOS' messages, I thought it might have been Kari, but after she denied it I was clueless, and I..." Izzy trailed off, as there was no need to say what was next: that he should have guessed it was Gatomon sending the messages but did not because he made the mistake of not valuing the opinions of the Digimon highly enough and also of underestimating their potential (particularly for a Digimon like Gatomon) to shape the group's future.

Gatomon simply let the feelings stew in silence, then said, "I can see you have had many dreams surrounding this mystery, all letting your unconscious give you clues to the mystery's solution. Now we understand why you did what you did, and there is something that I have been wanting to show the group for a very long time now."She smiled brightly as her tailring and eyes began glowing a pink color, and then just seconds later the group seemed to have been transported into a vaguely familiar desert.

The group looked around in alarm but Gatomon, still amongst the group, reassuringly stated with an echo in her voice "Do not worry. What you are seeing is only what I am projecting into your minds. I have not really taken you anywhere." The group immediately understood this as Gatomon's own power of creating illusionary projections, nowhere near as powerful as MaloMyotismon's illusions but decidedly more benevolent, and calmed down, though they were still very much surprised that she could even project illusions into the minds of others.

"You may or may not recognize where this is, but wait and see if memory does not serve you well..." Gatomon sprightly said, voice still with an echo...

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For a few brief moments, nothing seemed to happen, but a roar from behind them caused the entire group to whirl around. There, they were confronted with a sight that surprised the entire group and gave various reactions. Davis, Veemon, T.K., Patamon, Kari and Wormmon all jumped back a bit in shock while the rest of the group (except Ken and Gatomon) stared in suddenly roused curiosity.

At the same sight, Ken blanched and nearly collapsed to his knees in disbelief, for he recognized what he and the rest of the group saw all too well; apparently they were being projected a flashback to the final battle that resulted in the defeat of the Emperor Ken, his Kimeramon creation versus Magnamon. They had first been placed on a small ridge near the battle scene, at the bottom of the slope opposite it. Now they all ran to the top (apparently this was what Gatomon wanted them to do) and then followed her down to what she described as a "vital breaking point": a witness of Wormmon's "rebellion" against Ken during that battle.

Watching from the side of the illusionary Devidramon that the incident occurred on, most simply looked (and listened) soberly as the illusionary recreation of Wormmon ripping into Ken was played, culminating in the latter being knocked off and Wormmon giving his energy to let Magnamon destroy Kimeramon. Ken, in seeing so horrible a memory replayed in his mind, reached down and hugged Wormmon as he tried to fight back tears.

Rather than directly show the final attack of Magnamon and the anguish Ken experienced that ultimately broke Ken of the control the Dark Spore had over him as the Digimon Emperor (so as "to not unduly tax his emotion"), Gatomon instead put the group's focus to where the illusionary Wormmon had crashed into the sand, a creature without energy and slowly dying. T.K. noted (as did most of the rest of the group) how much he looked like Wizardmon after he saved Gatomon (perhaps emphasized more because of the illusion), while the real Ken squeezed the real Wormmon more closely, fighting hard not to cry...

Within a short time afterwards, the illusionary versions of Kari and Gatomon had noticed the fallen Wormmon, and the real group watched the illusionary DigiDestined crowd around the mental version of Ken's dying partner. "Watch the illusion version of myself closely." the real Gatomon said to the group.

The illusion Gatomon had knelt down by Wormmon, looking him over. She grimly announced that he was still breathing as the stunned illusionary version of Ken walked over to where the illusionary group was huddled. During the following moments when the illusionary version of the moment Ken received the Crest of Kindness, the illusion Gatomon pointed out that Ken was what was mentioned in the prophecy Wizardmon's ghost gave them before ("which, unfortunately, we all forgot afterwards" the real her honestly admitted) but, more importantly, they heard what the illusionary Gatomon was thinking the entire time.

As the illlusion Ken received the Crest of Kindness, the illusion Gatomon realized with a shock that "this is like... me, like with Wizardmon and myself... he's not an enemy, but a kindred victim of something greater." ("though, of course, I did not know then what that greater thing was." the real Gatomon cut in).

When shortly afterwards, the illusionary Wormmon died and illusion Ken mentioned him gone like his brother, Gatomon thought for sure he was like her. As the illusionary Ken lay crying, the real group could see the illusionary Gatomon begin to tear up (though the illusion group didn't) and slightly nod when the illusion Davis mention that people still loved Ken. "And I am one of them." the illusionary Gatomon was heard to be thinking when that was said. (At this point, the real Ken was now sobbing on the real Kari's comforting shoulder, the real Wormmon being squeezed ever tighter...)

Despite the pleas of the illusionary Davis to let them help, the illusionary Ken slowly walked away crying. The real group could see the illusion Gatomon on the verge of tears, though now completely silent. Dejected, the illusionary group wearily turned and headed in the direction of what would've been the Digiport back to the real world. However, the real Gatomon pointed out something that at the time been missed. As the illusion Ken slowly traveled away into the distance, the illusion Gatomon quietly turned and looked back at him as she followed the illusion Kari and the rest of that group. "Oh, if you only knew what I knew, if I could tell you what had happened to me!" the illusion Gatomon said under her breath in yearning of the greatest extent. "Davis is right, there are still people out there that care for you... and I am one of them." Seen by the real group but not the illusionary one, a tear tricked down the illusion Gatomon's cheek, which she quickly wiped away as she continued on with the rest of the group.

At this point, the illusionary characters disappeared, but not the desert environment. Ken was only now recovering from the shock. At this point, a still-smiling Gatomon began to explain things again: "There is no point in continuing with this. After we got back into the real world, while everyone was busy with packing and with Davis's sister..."(this elicited a few groans from Tai and Izzy as well as giggles from Kari) "I pulled the other Digimon aside and while you were busy gave them a quick version of my own story." The illusionary location now changed to the campsite, and the real group could see the illusionary Gatomon quietly pulling the other illusionary Digimon aside, then with them in a small circle, Gatomon passionately whispering in a quiet voice while the others nodded and looked at her intently.

"With this", the real Gatomon explained, "I managed to convince the others that should their opinion be asked for, they would vote unswervingly to help Ken. I took it for granted that we the Digimon, who suffered the most severally under the Emperor Ken, and I in particular would have eventually been asked to give our opinion about Ken, which was why I did not reveal what had happened at this point. However, it did not take me long to see that I had been incorrect in my assumption." The last statement was said like a barb and with a scowl made using the still-glowing eyes, and it was perfectly clear that by failing to ask of the opinions of the Digimon, the human kids had come close to the sin of hypocrisy in her eyes: claiming the Digimon to be real creatures with Ken, but yet turning around and not hours later refusing to consider their opinions, and thus the fact that were alive enough to have them, important. The shame-faces of most of the group satisfied Gatomon, and after a brief awkward pause, she continued...

"After we returned from the Digital World following the defeat of the Emperor Ken, a meeting was called in order to decide what to do with Ken, but this fell apart when a decision could not be made on what to do." Gatomon said, the scene changing to the familiar computer lab which had been a launch point for all their adventures up to this point, where a heated discussion was being shown with Tai, Matt, Izzy, T.K., Kari, Davis, Yolei and Cody as well as the Digimon partners of those present. The contrast between the fierce flinging of words between the human members and the stunned quietness of the Digimon could not have been more obvious, no doubt because Gatomon wanted it that way.

"Amongst all this flinging of words, I found it frustrating that we were not even being asked what our opinions were. Sure, when one of us tried to pipe up, you made a show of saying we could give our opinions later, but it was obvious to us that none of you were really interested in listening to our opinions, as it seems the human opinions would've been the only ones that would have affected Ken's fate." By now, Gatomon was laying the blame thick and hard with her condescending tone of voice, and now only Davis and Ken of all the humans present could stand to look directly in her pink-glowing eyes, the others averting from direct view due to the shame they felt...

"As most of you remember, Kari did not like all the loud words being thrown around and she and Tai left earlier than the others." Gatomon continued, motioning over to where the illusion Kari and Tai were talking and then quietly left, followed by the illusion Agumon and Gatomon. "What never got noticed was that while Kari was still in a flustered state, her D-3 had fallen off her belt while she wasn't paying attention. I retrieved the D-3, then took it back with me. She didn't notice it had fallen off until she noticed me holding it. She asked what I was doing with it and I said that she had dropped it and now I gotten it back. She nodded in response but never asked me to give it back or took it back, probably from the shaken-up state she was in."

The others of the group looked over to Kari for confirmation, and she half-mumbled something about thinking nothing was wrong with her having it and that she was sure Gatomon wouldn't do anything bad with it, but in reality she was in no mood to talk. She knew she had failed Gatomon's "test" most of all, as the conflict with her own experience and her own skepticism surrounding the events now being replayed had been thrown into sharp relief.

Gatomon immediately resumed her tale, saving her human partner the awkwardness of a pregnant silence: "As a result of this, I had possession of the D-3 for the remainder of the day. That night, after everyone else in the apartment was asleep, I managed to sneak out of Kari's room with the D-3 and hid myself in a corner of the apartment that was something of a private spot, where I kept a small memorial to Wizardmon." The scene changed to the Kamiya apartment in deep night (confirmed by Tai and Kari), attention drawn to the corner she had just described. In the faint shadows, the real group could see the illusionary version of Gatomon alone in the corner, holding a paper and faintly mumbling through a sob "Wizardmon, I hope I can bring you glory tonight. You saved me, now I have the chance to pass the favor on. I hope you are watching and will approve of why I am doing this secretly."

No explanation was needed for what the illusionary Gatomon was doing, for whenever Gatomon was having a bad day or was under stress she always went to that little corner with the picture of Wizardmon that had been crudely but sincerely drawn by Kari shortly after the first adventures in the Digital World. Going there and looking at that picture was a way of providing her with the comfort she sometimes so badly needed. And because of this, it surprised no one when she pulled out the D-3 and began pushing buttons on it (apparently activating the message mode).

"It was like this all night, pouring out my concerns, my knowledge, my compassions and my indignation." the real Gatomon said as her illusionary counterpart slowly began to input the messages, breathing in almost audible, rasped breaths, the paper with Wizardmon's image on it laying beside her, constantly wiping away her rapidly forming tears...

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And just like that, they were back in the present. The illusion had served its purpose, and the glow in Gatomon's eyes and tailring now faded. She looked over at Ken with the brightest smile in the world and said "I thought all my effort had been for nothing, but I am glad that circumstances worked out in my way, and in any case, I did seem to have left an impact in where I had hoped it would be most effective. I am satisfied now."

For a breathless moment, even the still-ticking death counter behind them was completely lost in the emotion of the moment, and then Ken broke it by once again going over and kneeling in front of her, taking her paw between his hands. "You mean... you did all that, for someone like me?" Ken asked with amazement and gratitude in his voice.

"I did it because I was someone like you." Gatomon honestly replied, and for just a second neither she nor Ken cared what anyone thought of what they were doing: he wanted to show gratitude, and she was willing to accept it. In full view of the group, Ken stood up and swept Gatomon into a wonderfully appreciative embrace, he grinning broadly and with a happy tear in his eye, her purring into his shoulder.

As it turned out, this act did not meet with a disapproving shock that it might have created; none of the group, not even Kari or Wormmon, were repulsed by this, for the pleasure of seeing them connect on such a fundamental level, as a result of a common hurt and efforts to mend it, were such that any possible accusations of malevolent or manipulative intentions simply shrunk to nothing and were never taken seriously. Besides, not many group members could not even **think **of anything bad about this, not in good conscience at least.

This warmest of embraces continued for a few more seconds, then Ken achingly said into one of Gatomon's ears, almost inaudible to the rest of the group, "Oh, if only there was some way I could repay you!"

Gatomon looked up and said through that cute smile of hers "There is a way you can do so." She turned to face the rest of the group before continuing: "There are times when I wish to escape this scarred form I am now in, and permanently assume the form of the angel Wizardmon saw in me. I know that day may yet be far off, but if you may be able to release the Harmonious Ones and restore to me the power to become that angel, that will be payment enough."

The group nodded in agreement. The shame Gatomon had brought up was slowly clearing, and the group realized that if Ken helped return the Crests to them, that would be a big favor indeed, but it would have the biggest impact with Gatomon, who's self-worth was inseparably tied to the Crest of Light that had given her the power to first defeat Myotismon after Wizardmon's sacrifice.

However, Gatomon was not done yet. "There is something you can do for me today, though. Show me your Crest." Gatomon stated. A perplexed but willing Ken fished through his pockets and pulled the Crest out, laying it in his hand.

The group, Izzy in particular, wondered how the Crest would be useful in this situation. The Crest by itself was useless in making Wormmon (or Gatomon) Digivolve, but Ken held onto it (and carried it around whenever he did something as a DigiDestined) both for its potential usefulness and for the much symbolism it carried, a symbol of Ken's rebirth, made all the more precious to him after he thought it lost in an effort to prevent his old base of operations (as the Digimon Emperor) from blowing apart, but retrieved and returned to him by Gennai after the base had been stabilized. As you might have guessed, Ken would have more than a been a bit worried about what Gatomon was going to use it for.

"Within this Crest contains a great power. I cannot use it to bring back the angel, but I can use it to do something else." Gatomon stated firmly through a determined face. She then locked her eyes in the direction of the Crest, then screwed her eyes shut tight, as if she was wishing with all her might to be able to use it for some kind of power source...

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Her tailring began to glow a brighter and brighter yellow, and within seconds the Crest in Ken's hand began to glow too. Startled, Ken pulled his hand back, but the Crest hung in mid-air and rotated around so that the symbol faced Gatomon.

The rest of the group, not knowing what to expect, began to pull back from Gatomon. Within seconds, Ken's D-3 had begun to emit a bright yellow light as well, and when Ken pulled it out to examine it, it shot out a yellow beam of light to the floating Crest.

Ken held it in place as the beam passed through the Crest, turning pink as it did so, then hit the tailring. Guided by the lightbeam, the tailring came off her tail and slowly flipped upside down before being put back onto the tail. When that happened, a yellow beam pulsed out of the ring and toward Kari's D-3.

A startled Kari pulled off her D-3, only to have it send the same beam toward her D-Terminal. As she pulled off the D-Terminal the only thing her confused mind could make her say was a tentative "DigiArmor Energize?" Instantly the D-Terminal burst with a blinding pink light that made her recoil in shock and the rest of the group take another half-step back.

The bright pink light condensed into a circular beam that then zoomed toward Gatomon and hit her, pumping pink energy into her body. Staring at the brightly glowing feline Digimon, Tai half-shouted in disbelief "Is she Armor Digivolving?!?"

"But that's not supposed to be possible!" Davis countered just as loudly, shielding his eyes from the blinding light.

"Gatomon may using the Crest to make it possible! We'll have to see what happens!" Izzy added in the same tone of voice as the light built to blinding intensity...

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The pink glowing form expanded...

**111011010010111**

**Gatomon Armor Digivolve to...**

**Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!**

**110101101011100**

...and slowly changed into something that looked like the familiar winged sphinx Digimon that was the result of Gatomon Armor Digivolving using the Digi-Egg of Light, only slightly larger and somewhat rougher looking. Instead of the flying beauty that Nefertimon normally looked like, this version was more like an army girl, visibly more muscular and with a ring piercing the right ear, also with other surprising changes which included a ring around the tail and right hind leg, amongst other things.

Though most of the group (Kari in particular) were very surprised by the "new" Nefertimon, but the odd initial reaction was soon replaced by a joyous realization that by restoring the Armor Digivolving ability, it had made Gatomon more useful by restoring the only way she could become a "transport", which not only increased the self-worth of said Digimon but obviously solved some problems as well. The fact that the form came with flying ability sure didn't hurt either, but why did it look different from before?

Izzy quickly came up with a tentative explanation: "It looks like she used the power of the Crest to reverse the ring's resistance to the Armor Digivolving process. Now not only does the tailring no longer prevents the Armor Digivolution from occurring, but actually adds it's power to the result. That's why Nefertimon looks different, her abilities have been enhanced by the tailring!"

Only Ken and Kari initially approached the new version of Nefertimon, who said in a voice that resembled the usual one but a bit gruffer "It has developed like I thought it would, and this is satisfactory for now. I am glad for Ken's willingness to help with this, and hopefully his burning question has been answered. We should detain no longer, though, if we want to help Matt and save those at the TV station."

Ken smiled and picked up his Crest that lay on the ground while Kari puzzled over this new version of her enhanced Digimon. The rest of the group wondered what she talked about until the urgency of what they had set out to do came rushing back into their minds. In a nervous, sweaty panic, T.K. ran back out of the alleyway and looked across the street toward the big public display monitor. It showed his mother talking with what looked like members of the affected university.

As most of the group followed him out, the image switched back to Giman, broadcasting from what looked like another part of the building. He angrily said, "May I remind the university that there are only 15 minutes left before that bomb explodes? Up to that point, I can disarm the bomb if you agree to my terms, but once the bomb has exploded no amount of pleading will bring them back to life! Be wise and hand over the supercomputer!"

"15 Minutes?!?" Tai exclaimed. "What are we going to be able to do in just 15 minutes?!"

Izzy quickly came to the only reasonable conclusion that he could think of and stated it: "We'll have to ride our Digimon there. It's the only way, and most everyone's attention is already on something else, so we don't have much to lose."

"All right, we'll have to go that way." Tai stated as his snap decision. "Everyone needs to ride on their Digimon toward the building and attack from the air. Agumon and I will ride with Izzy on Kabuterimon. Everyone needs to hurry!"

Kari mounted the new version of Nefertimon as the rest of the group readied themselves to "move out" on their Digimon. As Kari climbed on, she stated "There's something you still haven't told us: how you found Ken's D-Terminal to send messages to it?"

"Do you not think I knew about the locate function and the signal sent by Ken's D-3?" Nefertimon replied in a smug voice that made Kari blush.

"Oh... right..." she stammered out. The function itself would be easy enough to explain to the others, but her apparent forgetting of it was only the icing on the cake of the somewhat bizarre set of events that had just passed. However, now it was "game time", and she watched her comrades with a determined face, ready to move when they were...

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"Let's do it guys!" T.K. exclaimed. "**DigiArmor Energize!**"

**1001011010011101**

**Patamon Armor Digivolve to...**

**Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!**

**1001010111011100**

**1010010111011010**

**Tentomon Digivolve to...**

**Kabuterimon!**

**11101110111011101**

**1011010110111011**

**Veemon Digivolve to...**

**ExVeemon!**

**1011011101011010**

**1011101110110010**

**Wormmon Digivolve to...**

**Stingmon!**

**1101110111011101**

The area was now populated by the enhanced forms of the partner Digimon, which now had drawn outside attention as people nearby edged away, some snapping pictures, others with cell phones ready to call police or the news. The DigiDestined flushed visibly at the sudden attention, but it could not be helped. After all had been mounted (Izzy helping Tai and Agumon onto Kabuterimon's back), all of the monsters took off into the air, an aerial squadron of "monsters" would not be quickly forgotten for those watching on the ground below.

For the DigiDestined though, it was just another mission, and all eyes were quickly oriented toward the TV station, still a fair distance away. Davis, at the front, pointed toward the building and shouted "All right! Let's get that crazy guy! Squadron move out!" The entire group of five monsters began zooming towards the building, acutely aware of the time remaining, hoping they could still help Matt and the hostages...

No one seemed to object to Stingmon and Nefertimon moving to in front; in fact, they somehow wanted it to happen. Ken, on the back of Stingmon, looked over at Nefertimon flying beside, and let loose a great big grin in her direction. Nefertimon noticed, and (though Ken never was quite sure afterwards) it seemed the eyes of the statue-like face twinkled a bit as a result. Ken, satisfied with what he saw, turned his attention back to the building which Stingmon and the other Digimon were flying toward, hoping to still help Matt and the hostages and defeat the malevolent plans of Giman Uirusu...

**Well, it seems Ken has gotten his answers, but has it cost the DigiDestined the chance to help Matt, save the hostages from imminent death and frustrate the evil plans of Giman and his Ankokuwas? Find out in Part 6 "Air Battle!"**

Much of the material in the preceding two paragraphs comes from Black Knightmon's story "Redemption" ( the only difference being Ken fights a fake Garurumon instead of the Gururumon in the original story. I consider most of the material in that story "in continuity" with my stories and should the curious want further details about these events, I will request that they read that story to satisfy their curiosity. :-)

This version of Nefertimon is supposed to like the X-Antibody enhanced version seen on trading cards ( )


	6. Part 6: Air Attack!

**The DDLA: Episode 1**

**Part 6: Air Attack!**

10 Minutes Before Explosion, in the Fuji TV building...

Two Ankokuwa soldiers rushed through building corridors, shouting and firing their machine guns at a pair of targets...

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While the truth had been unfolding elsewhere, Matt and Gabumon had made a determined effort to reach the main control room and the hostages, but several times was rebuffed by either run-ins with Ankokuwa soldiers or a corridor rendered unsafe (either through a dangerous combination of water and sparking wires or through shout-up light fixtures raining down sparks from above). The pair were now running from a pair of soldiers sent to intercept them by Giman, who had been following their progress via the security cameras in the Security Center.

Giman was both furious and concerned that the "upstart teenager" had managed to break through his security perimeter, and was determined to "neutralize" him and his partner. He and assistant Kobu watched on a security camera monitor as the soldiers pursued Matt...

Matt ducked as bullets went over his head, creating little craters in the wall in front of him. Full speed, he and Gabumon whirled around a corner and zoomed down a short flight of stairs. They whirled around another corner and down some more stairs as the machine guns rang out again and bullets pockmarked a wall behind them. Now on the third set of stairs, Matt quickly sat down on the railing and slid down it, pulling Gabumon behind him. At the bottom, both were tossed off and slammed onto the floor.

Both Matt and Gabumon got up and turned just in time to see the soldiers at the top of the stairs, guns pointed at them. On a knee-jerk reaction, Gabumon spit out his **Blue Blaster** attack, a thin stream of blue energy that impacted on one of the gunmen before they could fire. The gunman hit in the attack reeled and knocked into his companion. While both tried to regain their balance, Gabumon hit them again and sent them both tumbling down the stairs, the machine guns flying away.

Both soldiers landed with a sickening "thud" at the bottom of the stairs, dazed and weaponless. Matt and Gabumon quickly shoved both men into a nearby janitor's closet, locking them both in. Matt leaned against the locked door, panting and dripping with sweat. "There's... got to be... a way... to blind Giman to where I am." he managed to get out.

"If you could disable the security cameras, maybe he wouldn't be able to track you." Gabumon suggested, he too drained from running around.

Matt thought this was a good idea, but wondered how he would disable the cameras quickly enough to make it practical. Then he spotted a circuit breaker box just down the hallway he was in and pointed it out to Gabumon.

"You want me to blast that thing?" Gabumon asked.

"Yeah, it's... it's what controls the power to this part of the building. Blast that, and everything in this section loses power, including the cameras. It'll at least keep him off our back for a while."

Gabumon nodded and aimed. **"Blue Blaster!" **he exclaimed as another short burst of blue energy came from his mouth.

It hit the panel, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks. Almost instantly, all the lights around Matt and Gabumon went dark, leaving only dim emergency lights to light the corridor. Matt looked satisfied as the panel sizzled and sparked, its lid blown off and the insides disfigured by the explosion and Gabumon's attack. "Let's go." he stated, as he and Gabumon ran back up the darkened stairway toward the main control room and the hostages...

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What Matt didn't know was that the blown out panel had done more damage than he thought. The damage to the panel caused extra power to be routed through other circuits, including those serving the Security Center. Combined with the damage from the initial Ankokuwa attack, this proved to be too much for the wires, and another panel near the Security Center blew just seconds after the sabotage took place. Giman barely had time to respond to the first blow-out when the Security Center went completely dark. Giman roared demands that the lights be fixed, and several soldiers, stumbling with flashlights in the darkness, managed to activate the emergency lighting inside the room. However, the cameras were completely inoperative, their screens showing only static.

Giman pounded his fists on the useless control board in frustration, then ordered everyone else in the room except Kobu to try to get the cameras working again. "I will NOT let this upstart boy and his partner ruin my plans with those hostages!" he yelled, mostly to himself.

Giman was still steaming when Kobu's walkie-talkie cracked with something he couldn't make. Kobu unholstered it and spoke into it: "Repeat the transmission, I couldn't make that out."

The pilot of the Alpha helicopter replied with alarm: "I said five bogeys approaching fast from the city, trajectory toward the hostages!"

Giman yanked the walkie-talkie from Kobu's hands and loudly stated into it: "What do you mean 'five bogeys approaching fast'?!? Are you sure those aren't news choppers?"

"I'm positive, sir." the pilot replied. "They're... like nothing I've ever seen before... they look like monsters, all of them flying... all of them being ridden."

Giman immediately guessed that these were allies of the boy who had broken in (of which he was correct), and with a frustrated growl he ordered both Alpha and Beta helicopters to take off and drive off the monsters. "Blow them out of the sky if you have to, but keep the hostages safe!" he half-yelled into the walkie-talkie.

The pilot acknowledged, and within moments, Giman could hear over the walkie-talkie the sounds of the copters being launched again. After this, he slammed down the communication device in frustration and grabbed a machine gun leaning nearby.

With fire in his eyes, Giman ordered Kobu to grab his gun and follow him. "I'm not going to let a teen and his allies make a mess of my plans!" he firmly stated. Kobu nodded, grabbed a gun laying nearby, then followed Giman out of the room...

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As you may have guessed, the "bogeys" were indeed that squadron of flying Digimon, all heading toward the building and quickly drawing the attention of the news choppers hovering nearby. Screens across the city showed images of the flying monsters opposite the rapidly ticking down counter. The college apparently was not going to be blackmailed into surrendering its computer, and it looked like the hostages were as good as dead. Until now...

T.K. pointed to a spot on the looming building and shouted to the rest of the group "That's where the main control room is; the hostages are being held in there. Blast a hole in the outside wall and we can get them out and down to the ground."  
The group acknowledged this and the Digimon aimed for the mentioned spot, ready to fire an attack to break through, when two helicopters zoomed down from the top of the building, positioning themselves between the flying group and the hostage area. It was obvious that they were controlled by Giman's men, trying to protect the hostages.

The group stopped in mid-air, and the Digidestined briefly conferred between themselves, trying to figure out what to do next. They quickly agreed to try to talk to the copters before trying to force their way past them, sending out Kari and Nefertimon slightly ahead of the rest of the group to act as spokeswoman while the rest of the group stayed further back as guards.

Kari nervously edged Nerfertimon closer to the pair of choppers hovering just in front of the outside wall of the room the hostages were in while the rest of the Digimon organized themselves in a protective semi-circle behind them. Kari called out in the direction of the helicopters "We don't want any trouble, we just want you to move out of the way."

The pilot of the Alpha copter grabbed a megaphone laying nearby, stuck his head outside the chopper and used the megaphone to reply over the roar of the helicopter rotors: "I'm sorry miss, but we can't do that."

"Why can't you?" Kari called back, confused and worried at the same time.

"The boss Giman ordered us to keep you away. Now don't make us have to use force." the pilot said back with the megaphone.

Kari looked back to her comrades with a smirk; she hadn't expected it to be easy, but she didn't want to have to order the Digimon to blast the copters out of the sky. She could see Izzy behind her making motions with his hands; apparently, his plan was to drop off Tai and Agumon on the ground while the rest of the group swung around for an approach from another direction. It was quickly agreed to, and Kabuterimon descended to near where the watching crowd was while the other four Digimon pulled off toward Tokyo Bay, hoping to approach from that direction...

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The crowd reacted with surprise and a bit of fear as Kabuterimon flew over them and landed behind the crowd, those at the edge nervously backing away from the giant insect as Tai and Agumon disembarked. Once that was done, Tai and Agumon began to run to and squeeze through the crowd, still distracted by Kabuterimon returning to the other Digimon. Tai could also see in that the copters positioned between the building and the Digimon were tracking the movements of his comrades, making it obvious they weren't going to give up easily. Thankfully, though, he and Agumon already had an idea about what they could do...

Pushing and shoving their way through the crowd, they managed to reach and hurdle over the wooden barricade the police had set up. Not surprisingly, a police officer grabbed Tai almost instantly, causing both Tai and Agumon to stop in their tracks.

"Get back behind the line! Didn't you see the barrier?! This place isn't safe!" the officer yelled out, motioning to the standoff at the door nearby.

"Don't worry officer, I know what I'm doing!" Tai reassured him before turning to Agumon and asking the Digimon if he was ready.

"**Oh yeah!"**

**111011010110111011**

**Agumon Digivolve To...**

**Greymon!**

**111010010101110011**

The sudden appearance of Greymon near the police standoff caused a number of reactions: satisfaction in Tai, further shock and agitation in the gathered crowd, a stunned surprise in the police officers, and fear in the Ankokuwa soldiers. With military smoothness the soldiers reaimed their machine guns over the heads of the astonished police officers and towards Greymon's body, but Greymon was quicker to the draw with a **Nova Blast**, the huge fireball aimed toward the building's front doors. The Ankokuwa soldiers scattered away as the fire ball exploded on the entrance, blowing out the doors and leaving everything else in the area charred and smoldering.

The police that had been in the standoff hesitantly began to move through the open doorway – they weren't about to look this gift horse in the mouth, particularly with time rapidly running out for the hostages – while the officer that had confronted Tai stared between him and Greymon with blank astonishment. "Can I... get your name and number?" he said numbly.

Tai grinned and nodded, ready to provide whatever information the officer requested...

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_Meanwhile..._

Giman glanced his watch as he ran. There were seven minutes left in the lives of the hostages, and he knew that the flying monsters and their riders, apparently allies of the teen that had got into the building with help of another monster, could take victory from him if they weren't stopped quickly. He was beginning to wonder if these monsters were somehow related to the monsters that could be created from the data he stole, and that they were after him because they knew what he had done...

He didn't know how right he was then, and even if he did he wouldn't have cared nearly as much as he should have, so focused he was on his plan. Right at that moment, he and Kobu were running through the building, trying to intercept the boy enroute to the main control room and the hostages. In his left hand dangled a machine gun, in his right hand was a walkie-talkie through which he was breathlessly barking questions to the helicopter pilots: "What are those monsters doing?!?"

"They're still trying to get around us. We're over the bay now..." the pilot of the Alpha helicopter replied. "We're still blocking them... wait, they're pulling back... no, they're looping around! Coming for us full speed! They must've tired of playing chicken with us, and now there attacking!"

"Remember what I told you! Don't be afraid to use the missiles!" Giman ordered.

"Sir, they're five of them and two of us! How do we expect to beat them?"

"Use the missiles and blow them one by one out of the sky! Just keep them away from the hostages, is that clear?!"

"Affirmative. Deploying missiles now." the pilot grimly replied.

Almost immediately, another voice came onto Giman's walkie-talkie, this one from a soldier in the building. "Sir, a monster has appeared at the building, near the front entrance! I don't understand how, but it just appeared and attacked our men out front! The men guarding the door have scattered and police are pouring into the building, request emergency backup!"

Giman couldn't believe it, yet another monster had appeared to try to defeat his plans! "DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO TO KEEP THE POLICE FROM RETAKING THE BUILDING! SHOOT ON SIGHT!" Giman yelled in his rage.

Giman looked like the devil himself as he and Kobu ran on, machine guns ready to fire at anything and everything that looked or acted hostile...

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Both outside and inside the building, two battles began. Inside the building, policemen and Ankokuwa soldiers began to exchange gunfire as the men and women in blue slowly began trying to clear the building. Outside, the Ankokuwa helicopters suddenly brandished small missile launchers (shoulder-launcher sized) and a pair of sharpshooters each. This stopped the flying squadron of DigiDestined in mid-charge with alarm.

"They have missiles!" Izzy barely could shout out before the two helicopters each launched a pair of missiles towards the group. The startled Digimon dodged the missiles, realizing that they had no choice now but to destroy the missiles and the helicopters. The missiles came around, and obvious that each of the four missiles was tracking a Digimon. The human partners clutched tighter as the Digimon began fast and elaborate aerial maneuvers to keep the missiles from hitting.

The news helicopters quickly changed over to the aerial battle beginning in front of them, leaving most of Tokyo and many in other places in the world on the edge of their seats. The counter was still ticking down, and the silent hope of the entire University of Tokyo in Odiaba as well as Tokyo in general was that the monsters which had plagued them would actually save the hostages from madman Giman...

Kabuterimon, who was one of the two Digimon not being chased by a missile, targeted and fired an **Electro Shocker **towards the missile chasing Pegasusmon, destroying it with a boom and freeing Pegasusmon to help him destroy the missiles chasing Nefertimon and Stingmon. ExVeemon, on Davis's suggestion, tried to lead the missile chasing him back into one of the copters, but a burst of machine gun fire by the copter's gunmen caused ExVeemon to zoom upward and away instead. He dodged the upward flying missile, tracked it coming back down toward him, then destroyed it with a **Vee Laser** attack.

"Crud, they've got long-range attacks?!?" the pilot of the Beta helicopter shouted through the radio in disbelief.

"Fire at will! Fire at will!" the Alpha copter pilot shouted back, and quickly the scene became even more chaotic as more missiles were launched from the copters. A similar scene to the first missile attack unfolded, except Kabuterimon took a hit from one of the missiles, throwing Izzy off and sending him plunging head first towards the crowd watching below.

The Beta helicopter charged the disoriented Kabuterimon, intending to blast him with more missiles and bullets, but Greymon, watching from the ground, fired a **Nova Blast** toward the copter to send it back in surprise while Davis and ExVeemon zoomed down and scooped Izzy up, quickly returning him to Kabuterimon.

Meanwhile, Kari and T.K. had used the same technique Davis had just used to get rid of the missiles following them, then charged for the Alpha helicopter. That helicopter, making a charge toward Greymon, did not see Pegasusmon and Nefertimon approaching from behind them, and so when Pegasusmon shot out his **Equus Beam **attack, it hit the tailsection of the copter, blasting the tail rotor off the helicopter. The helicopter spiraled down in an uncontrollable dive, splashing down into the bay seconds before the copter's fuel tank blew, sending a small fireball into the sky.

The Beta copter was now being pursued by three Digimon, who were dodging the attempts at being driven off through gunfire. The Ankokuwa soldiers in that helicopter noticed the fall of the Alpha copter, and desperately tried to get the missiles reaimed from their front-mounted positions to a place where they could be fired to the Digimon pursuing them. "**Mayday mayday! **This is Beta copter, being pursued by three monsters! Can't shake them with the gunmen, can't get the missiles turned around to fire back at them! Alpha copter's been destroyed, need backup!" the scared pilot yelled through the radio to Giman. He saw Stingmon charge in such a way that his attack could slice the tail rotor off, but was driven away by the gunmen.

The Beta pilot dodged an **Electro Shocker **from behind, then another** Nova Blast** fired from Greymon on the ground. Desperately he fired two more missiles, but they went erratic and plunged straight into the bay instead of tracking a target.

Only a moment later, Nefertimon fired a **Rosetta Stone** attack from below. The pilot lurched over in an attempt to dodge, but the stone hit just in front of the tail section, sending the copter into a fiery dive. Seconds later, the fuel tank on that copter exploded, scattering the Ankokuwan occupants and pieces of the helicopter itself over the bay. The Digimon squadron sadly turned back toward the main hostage approach as rescue boats began to converge on the wreckage of both helicopters...

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While the battle was raging, Giman was being constantly updated on events outside, and the combination of the destruction of both his attack helicopters and the elusiveness of the boy he and Kobu were hunting had made him livid. Now, he immediately gave orders knowing they were to be obeyed without question or delay. He turned to Kobu and growled out "It's no use both of us being here. I'm going back toward the hostages. I need you to get down to the soldiers and organize a withdrawal to a tight defense perimeter around the hostages. We have four minutes, and the police can't do anything against us now, but that boy and his allies still can! They need to be stopped, **NOW!**"

Kobu nodded and continued further down the building while Giman turned around and went back toward the main control room. Simultaneously he ordered the launch of the transport Chinook against the monsters, now again closing on the hostages, through the walkie-talkie.

"But sir, the police are retaking the building. If we launch, you have no evac, they'll catch you!" the Chinook pilot objected.

"**Don't argue with me!!! I want those monsters destroyed! Launch immediately and attack!!!" **Giman all but screamed into the walkie-talkie.

"Yes sir." the pilot morbidly acknowledged as he immediately took off in the Chinook, it now equipped with sharpshooter soldiers as well.

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The transported quickly moved out, launching missiles at the Digimon almost as soon as they could be seen. On impulse, the Digimon quickly launched intercepting counterattacks, exploding the missiles in a screening that covered their wheeling around into a new attack pattern. Two Digimon wheeled around and charged for the transport but were driven off by the gunmen shooting out of the sides. A **Nova Blast **at theplane by Greymon forced the pilot to make a hard turn to avoid the fireball, and in the confusion Stingmon managed to charge from beneath the copter and plunge his **Spiking Strike **attack into the bottom of the copter, blowing several systems and piercing through the bottom of the Chinook.

Inside the helicopter, several panels blew and alarms began going off as the pilot fought desperately to keep the large helicopter airborne. The Digimon wheeled around and around, firing attacks toward the large helicopter in rotating "rounds". Several attacks hit, causing parts of the copter to explode in spectacular fireballs. As the pilot struggled with the failing helicopter, one of the attacks managed to go through an open door where the gunmen had been posted and impact on the inside ceiling. This blew through the roof and spread a fireball throughout the interior of the helicopter, knocking all the occupants unconscious and blowing out the front windscreen of the Chinook. The twin rotors of the helicopter slowed to a stop, and the firey, blasted-out hulk of a transport slowly dropped into the bay, creating a small tidal wave and disrupting rescue efforts for the other copters.

The squadron of DigiDestined somberly turned back from the ruins they had been forced to create and back toward the hostages. "It's never easy." Kari ruefully thought, speaking for the entire group...

**The dastardly air force of Giman's Ankokuwas have been defeated, but what of the hostages? And of Matt? Are they too late to help either of them?!? Find out in the climactic Part 7: "Rescue!"**


	7. Part 7: Rescue!

**The DDLA: Episode 1**

**Part 7: "Rescue!"**

3.5 Minutes Before Explosion, Fuji TV Building...

Matt Ishida gritted his teeth as he continued running toward the main control room. While his DigiDestined partners outside battled Giman's helicopters, he and Gabumon had continued to press further up and in, at least once bumping into disorganized Ankokuwa soldiers who were desperately trying to pull back to a defensible perimeter around the hostages. Because they were not expecting to deal with Matt and Gabumon, they were taken by surprise and after a short attack by the duo they were rendered incapable of interfering with them, at which they continued on.

"The... room... is just down the hallway... around the corner." Matt breathlessly said to Gabumon, pointing ahead of them. They rounded the corner... and crashed headlong into the lone door guard, who had literally appeared almost right in front of them when they turned the corner and had no time to react before the collision occurred.

The soldier struggled to throw Matt off him, but a quick right-hook knocked him cold. Matt grabbed his machine gun as he and Gabumon got back up and hurled it at the door, breaking the lock and causing it to pop open. It only took a moment for Matt to see his dad and the university group tied up in the center of the room. He and Gabumon immediately ran in and toward the group.

Matt's dad gasped as his son pulled the gag off his face. "Matt... thank goodness you're here... but hurry!" he breathlessly pleaded.

Matt glimpsed down at the clock on the bomb as Gabumon began to cut the ropes: "00:03:00", it read. Indeed he didn't have much time, but Gabumon was making short work of the ropes and Matt began to pull off the gags of the rest of the group. Pleading to hurry, he managed to get the group to its feet...

The squadron of flying DigiDestined were again approaching the building, and this time there was no opposition. "I'll do this one! **Rosetta Stone!**" Nefertimon exclaimed as a very large tablet like stone appeared from above Kari's head and zoomed down to the windows of the main control room. It shattered the windows as it passed through the wall and by the group Matt was organizing (forcing them to hit the deck) before exploding the area around the doorway Matt had entered in. Unbeknownst to anyone else, Giman Uirusu, fast on Matt's trail, had approached the door at full speed when the stone exploded, which threw him far back down the corridor and for a short critical period knocked him cold!...

Matt and Gabumon quickly got up and turned toward the blasted-out windows, ready to face what they first took to be a new threat, but quickly dropped the attitude when Pegasusmon and Nefertimon approached the windows, T.K. and Kari smiling cannily. Matt made a sign to the group indicating they were friendly, then approached the windows in confusion. "I thought you weren't interested!" Matt yelled at them in confusion.

"We're interested in making sure you didn't blow yourself to a zillion pieces!" T.K. rejoined. "Besides, we weren't sure you could take the guys yourself."

The reply made Matt indignant, but he couldn't afford to launch into a tirade now. Instead all he stated to T.K. and Kari was "Is it just you two?"

"No, Izzy, Ken and Davis as well, and Tai on the ground. Between us, we can do five or six at a time."

"Fine, that'll have to do." Matt said as he motioned to the group, using hand signals to get the group to line up near where Pegasusmon and Nerfertimon were hovering, just outside the blown-out windows.

"I need everyone to get on the creatures my friends are riding. Don't worry, they won't harm you, just take you down to safety. Please hurry!" Matt ordered to the group.

With the clock ticking down rapidly and no other obvious way out, the group swallowed whatever opinions they had of the "monsters" and complied with Matt's order. The footage of the coordinated effort to take the students down to ground level shot from news helicopters from above was not something that could be quickly forgotten, and clips of that footage were replayed on TV news programs for many days afterwards. Additionally, it provided a interesting remedy to the "monster phobia" that the city had developed by putting the human-ridden "monsters" as heroes fighting against the truly evil yakuza that the Ankokuwa were...

Giman groaned as he slowly came to, head throbbing. The explosion had slammed him against a far wall in the corridor and threw the machine gun from his hand. Now he quickly got to his feet, still a little shaky, and scooped up the machine gun again. He ran over to the small pile of rubble created by the blast from the walls and ceiling above and looked over it into the main control room.

Not surprisingly, he was in an absolute state of rage when he saw Matt and T.K. helping their dad onto Pegasusmon's back. He was the last one to be evacuated, and Giman popped when he saw the bomb surrounded by nothing. He roared as he hurdled over the rubble pile and began pouring bullets in the direction of the scene.

Matt and Gabumon were forced away, diving for cover under a control panel, while T.K. quickly pulled back on Pegasusmon, carrying his father away as well. Matt looked back toward them and waved them away, desperately motioning them to get down. Before the dad could object, T.K. took Pegasusmon down to the area on the ground away from the building where police were caring for and comforting the other hostages.

After that, T.K. found where the others had landed, out of the way of the crowds but close enough to the building for a decent view. He took Pegasusmon down, landed there and dismounted. "Where's Matt?" Davis asked T.K. as Pegasusmon reverted to Patamon, joining the other Digimon that had been part of the squadron, returned to their usual forms as well, in watching the building.

"He told me to go without him." T.K. stated ruefully. "Only Gabumon can protect him now from the bomb and that madman Giman." He stared up at the building, joining his comrades in hope...

2.5 Minutes to Explosion...

Meanwhile, Matt and Gabumon were crawling for their lives down behind a row of control boards being blasted by Giman's machine gun. The combination of machine gun noise and explosions from the impacted panels was deafening, and neither of them wanted to look back because of the many sparks the shot-up panels were producing.

As they approached the end of the row, Giman's machine gun suddenly stopped and Matt and Gabumon were left panting behind the row of boards, sparks fizzling around them. "Come out, come out wherever you are, you meddling teenage brat!" Giman mockingly called out as he moved closer to where he was sure the two were.

He turned down the corridor and fired at the fleeing forms of Matt and Gabumon, who had crawled back down the row when they heard Giman approaching, then sprinted for another row of control boards. Matt dove as Giman's gun rang out again, putting bullets in the outer wall where Matt's torso would've been just a second before. "Digivolve! Now!" he desperately commanded Gabumon as they again began to crawl down behind control boards being blasted the machine gun.

"**Oh yes!"**

**11110101101111011110**

**Gabumon Digivolve to...**

**Garurumon!**

**11110100101010110010**

The sudden appearance of Garurumon startled Giman enough to stop his machine gun rampage, and Matt took advantage of this to bravely emerge from behind the boards.

Giman was only phased for a moment, wondering about what exactly these teens would be capable of and something of why the data he had stolen was so important, before giving an impressed look in Garurumon's direction. "Well, I must say that's an impressive trick," Giman stated eloquently as he reaimed his machine gun toward Garurumon, "but can your doggie handle bullets?!"

He grinned as he again began unloading the machine gun, but this time in Garurumon's direction. The latter, though hampered by the dimensions of the room, dodged the first bullets, then counterattacked. **"Howling Blaster!"**

The blue stream of energy from Garurumon's mouth was noticed by Giman just in time for him to avoid a direct hit, but the machine gun he was holding was hit, incinerating the barrel and leaving Giman holding a useless, smoldering ruin of a gun. "My Kalashnikov! **You'll pay for this!**" Giman exclaimed as he unholstered his samurai sword from the scabbard at his side and charged for Matt in a banzai yell.

Matt, alarmed by Giman's charge, looked desperately around for something to deflect the sword and managed to find and use a piece of pipe that had been laying on the ground just behind him to block Giman's high-powered slash with his sword.

What followed, as the DigiDestined and the city watched from below, was something of an improvised sword fight, with Matt desperately using the pipe to deflect and counter Giman's rage-driven slashes toward him. This continued until Giman tried to slice Matt through the head and Matt used both hands on the pipe to block the attack and lock both him and Giman in position, sweat dripping off both of them and Matt's intense gaze meeting the fiery rage in Giman's eyes.

Glimpsing side-long, Matt could see Garurumon in the background, and it revived his flagging strength. He roared and pushed Giman out of the lock, the latter stumbling backward. Before Giman could get his footing, Matt used the end of the pipe to butt him in the stomach, then drop him by ramming it into his chin.

"GARURUMON! NOW!" Matt yelled.

"**Howling Blaster!"** Garurumon said as the blue stream of energy blasted again from his mouth. Giman had just gotten back on his feet when the blast hit, sending him sailing across the room and slamming him into the wall. The sword fell from his hands and he crashed face first onto the floor, clothing smoldering.

Giman groaned as he slowly got up, and Matt thought he had beaten him, or at least weakened him enough that he had a shot at escaping. However, before Matt could do anything else, he heard a beeping sound coming from somewhere. This sound immediately revived Giman and he began mockingly laughing at Matt and Garurumon. "**FOOL!**" he exclaimed. "Have you forgotten that the clock was ticking down all this time?"

Matt quickly looked back toward the bomb, which sure enough was the source of the beeping. "There is now less than one minute left before that bomb explodes." Giman began to explain. "This room will fill with fire, and even if I don't take you with me, you have only won the battle and not the war! I have **hundreds **of followers, all willing to take up my cause! You will never be rid of us, and we will fight you until you and your shape-shifting pets have been subdued under the yoke of the Ankokuwa! Make no mistake, you and your friends cannot win this war; we will use what we have stolen to unite this world under the banner of the Ankokuwas! And there is nothing you can do to stop it!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Matt exclaimed as he rammed the end of his pipe into a safety glass cover for a fire extinguisher (which he had been inching closer to as Giman ranted). The glass shattered and Matt quickly dropped his pipe before pulling the fire extinguisher out.

"NO!" Giman said as he realized what Matt was doing and charged for him, but it was too late. Matt yanked the safety pin out with his teeth and blasted Giman in the face with the extinguisher contents, causing to reel back, screaming in pain and clutching his face in agony. Matt heaved the extinguisher toward Giman and Garurumon smartly intercepted the projectile with a small blast, which caused the extinguisher to explode in a mass of foam and metal shards right in front of Giman. He was knocked flat on the floor, covered with foam.

"**RUN!!**" Matt yelled at the top of his lungs as he began sprinting toward the far door. The bomb's timer was rapidly ticking down to zero: "00:00:09"..."00:00:08"..."00:00:07"...

Matt realized he wouldn't make it to the blasted-out area in time to get away from the bomb's explosion and ordered Garurumon to follow him toward the opening that had been blasted out of the building's front. Giman wiped away foam from over his eyes, his face embedded with metal shards and paralyzed by both pain and fear, the first time realizing that he had truly lost, and that he would die in the explosion of his own bomb. "00:00:06"..."00:00:05"..."00:00:04"..."00:00:03"...

Matt and Garurumon rapidly approached the opening; they had no choice but do a swan dive down the side of the building. "**JUMP!!**" Matt shouted with all his effort.

"00:00:02"..."00:00:01"..."00:00:00"

The instant Matt and Garurumon cleared the building the main control room was filled with fire. The explosion shattered the rest of the front facade, filled the room with an intense fireball and flared out the previously made opening with an impressive sideways mushroom cloud. Everything in the room (including Giman) was sent flying into adjacent rooms as the heat and pressure wave shattered the walls of the room, causing the ceiling to collapse over the scorched remains.

Everyone watching (including the other DigiDestined) gasped worriedly as the flame filled the room, but both eyewitness and the news choppers in the sky saw Matt and Garurumon falling down the side of the building. Both the crowd and police near the walls were scattering away from the falling debris, so the only ones who were close enough to catch Matt were Tai and Greymon, who had refused to retreat from the debris. Garurumon was gracefully zooming straight down, but Matt tumbled in the air and would likely be hurt seriously if he impacted directly on the ground. "**Catch him, Greymon! Catch him!**" Tai quickly yelled to his partner.

"No problem." Greymon confidently said as he positioned himself under where Matt was falling. He leaned down so that Matt would hit square on the back, then raised his tail up to act as a way of slowing his descent. Matt hit Greymon square on the back, just below the shoulders, and tumbled down the back until he hit the crook where the tail began to turn upward, then fell out of that onto the ground. Garurumon landed beside Greymon, and helped the latter protect Tai and Matt from the falling debris.

When the debris subsided, Tai helped Matt away toward the other DigiDestined as the crowd roared with cheers and celebration. Greymon and Garurumon both reverted, then quickly followed Tai and Matt back to the main group.

The group was jubilant, not just for the victory they had won but for Matt being safe and sound. Kari laughed and threw herself on Matt as soon as he was within arm's reach. "Haha, you did it, Matt! You won!" she exclaimed. She then let go and looked back up ruefully toward the Fuji TV building before finishing: "But... what happened to Giman?..."

The rest of the group then joined her in concerned worry, all looking to the blown-out main control room, belching smoke into the Odaiba sky...

"GIMAN! GIMAN!" Kobu called as he worriedly sprinted down the hallways toward the blown-out room. He stopped, coughing from the smoke. "GIMAN!"

He climbed over ceiling rubble, coughing from the smoke, and called out again. He pressed further into the room, coughing as he climbed over rubble. He called once more, then gasped and froze when he saw part of a human emerging from a rubble pile: Giman, unconscious and half-buried under the collapsed ceiling.

Coughing, Kobu rapidly approached. Giman's legs were buried by rubble and a beam had fallen on his right arm, meaning it was likely broken. His face had metal shards embedded in it, which slowly bled, streaking a dust-covered face. Kobu heaved the beam off Giman's arm, then desperately yelled his name repeatedly at him while trying to shake him into wakefulness.

When Giman did not stir, Kobu pulled out his walkie-talkie and urgently spoke into it: "Get me a medic and transport up here, fast!" He coughed some more, then struggled to pull Giman out from under the rubble he had been buried under. Giman's own condition mirrored that of the Ankokuwas at the moment: beaten by an enemy they had not expected or known about, and damaged by their very own devices...

**Stay tuned for Part 8, "Victory!" A great celebration of success and an affirmation of the gains won, and also answers the question "Is Giman really defeated for good?" You can't miss this final part of the first episode of the DDLA! **


	8. Part 8: Victory!

**The DDLA Episode 1**

**Part 8: "Victory!"**

Author's Notes: "I'll Be There For You (Friends Theme)" copyright The Remembrants. All rights reserved to them.

**--**

Date: Saturday January 31st, 2004

Time: 7:00pm

Place: Odaiba Convention Center, before an "invitation-only" private concert of Matt's band...

The rented room in the convention center, having just enough room for the gathered DigiDestined and the equipment for Matt's band The Teenage Wolves, was abuzz with joyous chatter and merry spirits. This day was a day of celebration, and while the news media poured out endless speculation concerning "the friendly monsters and their riders" the DigiDestined kept their celebrations to themselves. Until Matt decided as a spur-of-the-moment thing to make use of the band's lease on a space in the Odaiba Convention Center and hold a private concert. Since he was the hero of the day, they were reluctant to say no despite all the headaches it would cause in terms of logistics.

A quick series of phone calls managed to convince most of the "3rd-generation Digidestined" (as the older kids were now calling the former Spore Kids) to come to the concert, as well as to get everything else in order for the band. Which was why now Matt, Sora and their Digimon were backstage, Sora and Biyomon helping Matt and Gabumon set up and test equipment.

"Did I ever tell you that you were absolutely crazy for trying to do what you did?" Sora asked Matt, trying to make conversation in a cheeky way.

Matt blushed and laughed slightly. "Well, put yourself in my position. Wouldn't you be a little reckless too if it was your dad that was about to be blown to bits?"

"**My** dad wouldn't be dumb enough to get into that kind of situation." Sora self-confidently stated, giggling as she tapped Matt on the nose with her right index finger.

"Uh... well, you gotta take what you're given. And in my case, it's... journalists." Matt replied, stating the last word with a heavy irked tone.

"Yeah, I'm concerned that all these public links will make it extra difficult to keep our Digimon out of the public eye."

"Well, my dad has said that he won't try to use us as inside sources, that he's going to let the other journalists find their own answers. I don't know about Mom, though. I'll have to ask T.K. when I get a chance."

"Where is T.K., by the way? I haven't seen him around..." Sora asked.

"T.K.'s been at Tai and Kari's all day. Not sure if it's because of about Gatomon or what the reason is. He said he was going to be here, so he's probably down in the crowd somewhere."

"Is that why you're being so modest?"

Matt looked up with confusion. "What are you talking about?" Matt asked.

Sora put her hands on her hips. "You can't fool me, Yamato Ishida. You think what got revealed about Gatomon and Ken is more important than your feats of daring-do!"

"What? No way!" Matt quickly replied.

"But you didn't seem so obtuse when T.K. first told you about what happened. You wish you had been there and seen everything, is that right?"

"Saving my dad was important! Do you think I would have risked my life if it wasn't?"

"Matt, I'm not trying to say that what you did was unimportant. You just aren't admitting that in the big perspective her actions outweighed yours."

"I saved lives, she helped me, she helped others and myself in saving both worlds..." Matt trailed off before blowing out a sigh and shrugging his shoulders. "Eh, maybe I'm... not sure how to frame it properly."

"Well, however it is framed, you still saved lives. That's worthy of honor _any_ day!"

Matt looked up at Sora and smiled. "Thanks." he gratefully replied.

--

Meanwhile, down in the crowd, Cody, Joe, Gomamon and Armadillomon watched somberly as Yolei and Hawkmon tried to talk with Kari and Gatomon, obviously the latter pair needing cheering up by the former. The excitement of the celebration swirled around them like water around a stone, seemingly unable to affect them. Joe finally spoke up, pointing out Cody's all-too-evident facial contortions.

"Oh, well..." Cody said through a smirk and a sigh. "Today's just brought all that mixed feeling up again. I don't like it when everything is all jumbled up inside, and I've been like this too often over the past month."

"Well, everyone has periods in their life where nothing seems steady. But you can't let it get to you. You've still got a lot going for you." Joe sagely replied.

"You speak like you know what you're talking about." Cody plainly stated.

"Eh, being honest, I suppose I should say that I've been a bit unsettled about my brother's plan to introduce Digimon to the world. However this should make things easier... I hope."

"I hope so too. At least we have good material to work with." Cody affirmed, vaguely gesturing to the many humans and Digimon playing around them. "Your brother could get all the pictures he wanted right now if he was here."

"That's true, but he has to stay at the college for a while to help with 'the recovery phase'. And in any case, he is constantly asking me for candids on Gomamon, and I keep telling him I can't do candids with Gomamon!"

"Hey, I can't help it! I like the camera and it likes me!" Gomamon piped up beside Joe, speaking somewhat indignantly.

"Yes, I know Gomamon, but seriously Jim needs to balance his picture requests." Joe replied. "I mean, if it's neat pictures of Digimon he wants, he pretty much has his pick. Biyomon, Gomamon, Patamon, Gatomon, Veemon, Wormmon..."

"And don't forget me!" Armadillomon quickly added, grinning with a cutesy smile.

"Well, yes, I suppose you and Agumon would fit that too, but my point is is that Jim needs to look at other choices."

"Maybe he will now that things have been accelerated ahead...?" Cody weakly suggested.

Joe just shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea. We'll just have to wait and see."

Silence fell between them again as several younger kids ran by them. They looked over again at Kari and Yolei talking, a mixture of unease and annoying frustration passing between them in their gaze at each other. Cody sighed and pounded his fist into the table. "I want to do something to help her, something meaningful, something more than just words and hugs, something with substance, but I feel so..." Cody began to pour out.

"Helpless?" Joe offered.

"Yeah, that's it."

"But I thought you were helping by trying to get to Oikawa's stuff."

Cody pounded the table again. "We've hit a wall! We can't get in until the police say so, and they don't believe us when we tell them about why we know Oikawa's dead. We can't get the landlord to believe us either; thinks we're crazy and just wanting to plunder his stuff!"

"Hey, chill a bit!" Joe stated, trying to reduce Cody's temper. "Maybe they'll be more willing to believe you after what happened today. You just need to keep trying."

Cody blew out a sigh. "But I don't even know if it's worth the effort."

Joe chuckled a bit and smiled. "With her, **anything ** is worth the effort. Trust me on this."

"How do you know?"

"Remember what I told you, about my piece to her story?"

After a moment of noncomprehension, a lightbulb went on in Cody's head and he groaned slightly, letting his head slide off his hands and onto the table. "Oh, man, I feel so useless. I want to do something that matters to her, like what you did, but I feel stuck, helpless... worthless."

Joe smiled again. "I often felt the same way the first time I adventured in the Digital World. But something I learned is that **nothing** you do for others is ever worthless. You'll get your chance, and your recognition. Just wait and see."

Cody looked back up at him. "Now I **know** you sound like you know what you're talking about." he stated through confusion.

"More than you know, Cody. More than you know."

--

Yolei, seeing that Gatomon wasn't going to be cheered up easily, sighed before wearily giving up and reporting back to Izzy, who was sitting in a corner hunched over his laptop. Hawkmon joined Yolei, Izzy, Davis, Ken, Tentomon, Veemon and Wormmon over in the corner, all huddled around the laptop.

"Any luck?" Izzy said as he looked up from the screen at Yolei.

"Nope. Nothing." Yolei said. "Not even a smile."

"I even offered her free access of any fish products that expired in the convenience store, but all she did was crinkle her nose and say that the old fish stuff stank and that she wouldn't eat it unless it was the only food available to her." Hawkmon added.

"Hmm... I guess telling her about the dome being blown out wasn't such a great idea after all." Davis said through a smirk.

"Well it's not like she wasn't going to find out sooner or later." Yolei replied. "But I was pretty sure that when we said something about the dome she would've gone down like a rock."

"We only have ourselves to blame, then." Davis said with a half-wince, because he didn't like the idea of having been responsible for one of Gatomon's "down" cycles.

"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it now. She can be mad at the Ankokuwas with the rest of us for destroying her memorial." Izzy quietly stated.

"We're actually not sure if the memorial was completely destroyed anyways. Matt and I have been trying to get access into the building, but it's in a pretty bad condition and there won't be causal visitors for at least a few days, if not weeks." Ken added.

"How bad was it?" Yolei asked.

"For starters, there are bullet holes everywhere in the building; patch jobs for those alone are going to take a while. Then we have some water damage, electrical damage, even a small fire I think, all that takes time to repair and replace things. And of course, the main control room and the adjacent area is a complete loss; they're going to have to clear away the rubble and rebuild that from scratch. Fuji TV is running from backups, but they won't have full broadcast restored for a while. It's anyones guess about the dome, but from what I saw it looks like a bomb went off inside it."

"And the Ankokuwas? Giman?"

"No one knows, not even the police. After the bomb exploded, the Ankokuwa soldiers rushed the police line at a weak point and broke through. The police got a few, but most of them managed to get out of the building and escape into the city. Since Ankokuwa uniforms were found scattered about everywhere in the building, the soldiers probably are in civilian clothes dispersed throughout Tokyo. No one has found or identified Giman yet, and their headquarters in downtown Tokyo was found by the police on fire. The soldiers they captured are being questioned, but those are resistant, and going through the old headquarters is going to take awhile, and they may not have the time they need."

"All right, but what has that got to do with us?" Davis impatiently asked.

"What it has to do with us is that Giman Uirusu is going to be a very tough nut to crack. Look here." Izzy stated, pointing to a webpage on his laptop. "According to this, Giman is the mid-30s leader of the Ankokuwa yakuza gang. He took over after winning a fierce internal war last February, and turned the Ankokuwas into a mysterious paramilitary organization, menacing police and other gangs alike. He expanded their operations and runs what appears to be a large network of computers capable of performing denial-of-service attacks and other cyber-crime to whomever he pleases, even though no one knows where this network is located other than it being in the general Tokyo area."

Izzy looked up grimly before he continued: "He seems to be interested in technology, and he managed to stumble across something about what happened during the first adventure we had. He also must have somehow found out us and our 'theory', then used our contacts to get to Willis and steal his data. And now he wants a supercomputer to create a Digimon army of his own. We've stopped him for now, but we don't know what happened to him and the Ankokuwas are still out there. Until we get Willis's data back, we're going to have to fight them."

"Oh man, that doesn't sound good." Yolei numbly said.

"I know, but we don't have a choice now." Izzy firmly stated. "Either we get the data back or we risk Giman and his underlings creating an army with which they could rule both this world and the Digital World."

--

"All right, but what about Willis? Anything on him?" Davis asked Izzy.

"I sent an email earlier today to Mimi telling about what happened, and I got a response back about an hour ago. She was pretty surprised about Gatomon too, but she was more concerned about what was happening to Willis. According to her, she, Willis, Michael and the other Digidestined in the city are working with the police to help find where the data went, but they are reasonably sure it's not in the city, that it was smuggled out somewhere." Izzy replied.

"How is she so sure?"

"There was a police report of two Japanese that essentially pushed and shoved their way onto a non-stop flight to Tokyo. They showed guns from time to time, and when the airport police tried to grab them, they fired into a fuse box and used the explosion to cover their escape. The New York City police think they made it back to Tokyo with whatever they took from Willis."

"Then those men are probably working for Giman, and he has the data."

"Correct. Willis has even had Endigomon..."

"Who?" Davis asked.

"Kokomon. The big shaggy form you first met him as. Endigomon is the real name of that form."

"Oh, right, I remember now... Yeah, that was after Willis found that Digi-Egg and Kokomon got to Champion form again real fast."

"And then they couldn't afford to keep him, so they had to give him to the Central Park Zoo to care for him." Yolei added, an amused look passing over her face.

"Willis didn't give him to the zoo, Yolei, just put him in their care." Izzy explained as he rolled his eyes. "And as I was going to say, Willis has had Endigomon try to get support from those visiting him for the search for the data, but nothing has come of it yet. Thankfully, this doesn't seem to be related to Diaboromon other than the fact that the data that was stolen was a record of how he created the Digi-Egg that became him."

"Yes, but that's still bad news. One Diaboromon running around was bad enough, imagine having to deal with a whole army of Digimon."

"All the more reason we need to get the data back quickly, so that we won't **have** to deal with that." Ken firmly stated.

--

After that, an awkward silence descended on the entire group, and they slowly turned to look over at depressed Gatomon and a Kari weary of trying to get her to lighten up. "I only wish we could do something to stop her mood swings." Yolei distantly stated, expressing the entire mood of the group.

"If only we could." Izzy morbidly replied, continuing with "Getting those Crests back would solve so many of our problems, including hers probably. But until we can do that, there's nothing we can do other than be sympathetic. And that only goes so far."

The rest of the group nodded, and continued looking on morbidly, wishing against hope that there was some way to cure this ill...

Suddenly, the room speakers squealed on and everyone in the room turned their attention to the stage, where Matt's band was set up and ready to play. Matt took up the frontmost mike in his hand and began apologetically speaking into it: "Sorry about that. We're just about ready to begin, so if we could have everyone sitting down at the main table please?"

The group members looked at each other, then at Matt. They had the unshakable feeling that Matt had an ulterior motive in his concert, but couldn't figure out why. Puzzled, each member went over to their designated spot at the table and sat down. One thing they couldn't help but notice was that both Ken and Kari were at the head of the table, closest to the stage, which only made them even more puzzled.

Once everyone was in place, Matt spoke into the mike again: "All right, we're going to do a special performance of a song we feel is very appropriate to this set of circumstances right now. It's well known in America, but you may not have heard of it. It's called 'I'll Be There For You'; I will sing lead while Tai and Joe join my bandmates in backup."

Tai, Joe, Agumon and Gomamon got on stage while Matt got ready to play. Gabumon was beside Matt, and both Sora and Biyomon were already beside them, not singing but as a dance accompaniment. The entire rest of the audience was raptly focused on the stage, ready for the "private concert".

As soon as Tai and Joe were on the back mike, Matt began playing an upbeat, bouncy tune that was soon joined in by the rest of the band. Matt began the first verse alone, singing in Sora's direction, but was quickly joined by the backup:

_So no one told you life was gonna be this way_ (Clapping by Tai and Joe followed this line)  
_Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A.  
It's like you're always stuck in second gear  
And it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,  
Or even your year but..._

The band quickly popped into the chorus, Matt seeming to alternate his gaze between Sora and audience as he sung and played:

_I'll be there for you  
When the rain starts to pour  
I'll be there for you  
Like I've been there before  
I'll be there for you  
'Cuz you're there for me too..._

The band began the second verse, with Matt looking over with a smirking look in his eyes to Sora as he sang:

_You're still in bed at ten  
And work began at eight  
You've burned your breakfast  
So far... things are goin' great  
Your mother warned you there'd be days like these  
Oh but she didn't tell you when the world has brought  
You down to your knees that... _

The chorus now repeated, this time with Matt focused out to the audience in general and the front of the table where Ken and Kari were in particular. Something that was only being noticed by those on stage and those nearby at the table was that Ken and Gatomon were giving each other increasingly appreciative looks. This increased during the following verse, also sung and played by a Matt focused out onto the audience:

_No one could ever know me  
No one could ever see me  
Seems you're the only one who knows  
What it's like to be me  
Someone to face the day with  
Make it through all the rest with  
Someone I'll always laugh with  
Even at my worst I'm best with you, yeah_

What followed this was an instrumental passage in which Matt showed off his guitar skills and worked up a sweat as the rest of those on stage (excepting his bandmates, stuck at their instruments) danced around. By now, most everyone in the audience (even those wondering what Matt was doing) were bopping to the music, with the noticeable exception of Ken and Gatomon, still trading appreciative looks.

The chorus was played again, and the intensity of emotion began to build on the stage, seemingly also swelling up the emotion on the front seats to the point where almost everyone in the audience had an idea what was happening there.

The band then repeated _I'll be there for you_ three times, Matt looking gratefully into Sora's eyes and Gatomon doing the same to Ken. At this point, everyone in the audience was looking at the head of the table, not on the stage, and as Matt and the band sang the last line (_'Cuz you're there for me too!_) and hit the last note, Gatomon leapt into Ken's arms, them snuggling together, and everyone knew they were the whole reason for the concert.

Sure, they're would be setbacks, and the major wild card of the memorial destruction, but now the DigiDestined were stronger than ever, tied together anew through the bond formed from "Oikawa's Shame" and its lingering aftershocks of that battle with MaloMyotismon. The social reorganization was finally complete, and now they could grapple with the Ankokuwas and other problems without internal uncertainty...

--

_Meanwhile, somewhere in south Saitama Prefecture, Japan..._

Kobu hovered over the bed where the unconscious Giman lay, heart monitor beeping and tense worry filling the room. Kobu had rallied the Ankokuwa soldiers in breaking out of the Fuji TV building, then as the acting boss of the yakuza gang was forced to lead an escape from Tokyo Metropolis to prevent police retribution from destroying everything. He commandeered an ambulance that had arrived after the bomb explosion to get Giman away from the police, then ordered the soldiers, already in civilian clothes and scattering throughout Tokyo, to get to the "Saitama Office", a small complex of buildings located "just over the line" in southern Saitama Prefecture, where the Tokyo police had no legal authority and thus the Ankokuwas were safe from retribution.

Meanwhile, Kobu also had to order a "building seppuku" for the central Tokyo Office, which meant that the current occupants of the building had to take as much sensitive data as they could easily carry and scatter throughout the city, all the while activating a special program in the building's security software that exploded packs of chemicals installed in crucial structural beams and next to natural gas lines, causing fires and structural collapse throughout the building. When Kobu saw the building on the news, it was writhing in flames and partly collapsed; the system had worked, and the building was now useless to police.

Ankokuwa soldiers were slowly coming in with data and materials, and the Central Command was slowly being reestablished there, meaning that Kobu was very busy and would be for a long while. Giman was unconscious, his right arm broken, legs severely bruised and cut by rubble, face and chest speckled with scars from the metal shards that had been driven into his skin, flash burns over much of the body and bruised ribs from a piece of rubble that had fallen on his chest.

But Giman was alive, and the Ankokuwa would survive. The former headquarters in Chiyoda ward of the Tokyo Metropolis was useless to police, the central command was slowly reforming in Saitama and "Hub X" (the location of which was only known to the leaders and those that worked there, none of which had been captured by police) was safe. The data stolen from New York City, stored at Hub X, was safe as well, but with communication temporarily cut off, there was no way to access the data. Giman's initial efforts to create Digimon from the data could not be continued until communication was resumed.

Kobu wearily looked down at Giman, snoring peacefully in the Saitama Office's "Recovery Center", something of a small hospital managed by doctors and nurses tricked or shanghaied into working for the yakuza gang. He gently stroked Giman's now scar-speckled face.

"It's all right, I've got everything under control now." he quietly reassured his sleeping leader. "All the data is safe and the network hasn't been compromised. Your loyal soldiers are converging here and we are rebuilding Central Command in Saitama. You will be safe here, everything will be alright."

Kobu sighed, and looked over at Giman's laptop, sitting unused in the corner of the room. He picked it up and left the room, walking toward the acting main office. He already had a revenge plan: activate the "Data Harvester", a program that would find and steal data based on certain parameters set by the controller (usually Giman) that executed the program. What Kobu intended to do was activate the program and set it to find data like that they had stolen, to get as much data as they could and continue the efforts Giman had started.

"Those meddling teenagers and their monster friends will pay for the damage they have caused to this great yakuza gang." Kobu vowed as he headed toward his temporary office, trying to find a way to get in touch with Hub X and retrieve enough of the stolen data to activate "Data Harvester". The Ankokuwas were defeated, but far from being rendered powerless...

**What exactly is "Data Harvester"? And will it come back to haunt the DigiDestined? You'll have to tune in to Episode 2: "DigiWorld 2004" to find out!... **


	9. Appendix: Constitution of Digidestined

**The DDLA Episode 1: Appendix**

**The Constitution of the DigiDestined**

**THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF THE DIGIDESTINED**

**(Drafted and approved January 30th, 2004)**

**Article 1: **The following is hereby underlined as concerning the purpose and intent of the First Constitution of the Digidestined.

**Sec. 1- **The purpose and intent of this document is to protect and promote the proper relationship between humans and Digimon and of the respective worlds in which they live. In the absence of a true legal authority to create and interpret rules concerning these relations, this authority has been created to enforce those rights and serve as a model to be followed later when such true legal authorities do see fit to create and enforce such rules.

**Sec. 2- **If this authority becomes such that the fundamental rights of both humans and Digimon are not correctly enforced, it is the right of those involved to destroy the authority and, if so desired by a vote of 2/3, to force this constitution to cease having legal authority and thus necessitating a convention to rewrite this constitution or replace it altogether.

**Article 2: **The basic rights and responsibilities of Digimon are outlined as follows:

**Sec. 1- **Digimon are to be treated, without exception, as equal to humans under the legal system of the country that the Digimon resides in. If a situation is not or cannot be covered under human law, the laws for humane treatment of animals will apply. Completely unique situations may be required to have their own special legal rules, which would be derived from the sources above.

**Sec. 2-** In terms of voting, Digimon may vote for a human representative that will advance their interests, but if Digimon representatives are permitted to be appointed, they may or may not choose to vote for them in place of a human representative.

**Sec. 3- **In terms of jury duty, Digimon may accept or refuse jury duty as a human would, but the fact that they are Digimon may not be used to prevent them from being chosen or from being denied accepting jury duty if they desire to do so.

**Sec. 4- **Human communities in the Digital World and Digimon communities on Earth may be established according to the will of those that will inhabit it, provided that all applicable legal codes are followed by the community and that the settlement respects the character of the other world.

**Article 3: **The supreme authority of enforcing this Constitution, The Council of the Digidestined, is established as follows:

**Sec. 1- **The Council shall be composed of human and Digimon members equal in rights and responsibilities. All members shall be appointed to the Council by a 2/3 majority of existing members, but if so desired by 3/4 of the current council, appointments may be from that point on made only as democratic elections of certain representative blocks, also adding the possibility of recalls or votes of no confidence in Council members, or in combination with above system.

**Sec. 2- **The human partner of a Digimon Council member or the Digimon partner of a human Council member shall be allowed to become a Council member if they desire unless opposed by 3/4 of the Council as it currently exists.

**Sec. 3- **Any member of the Council may be subject to impeachment if articles of impeachment are brought against a council member. The articles must state the reason they are being brought forward and must be approved unanimously to begin trial proceedings. If the articles are approved, the rest of the Council (excepting partners of the one being charged and others with conflicts of interest) shall try the accused member; if found guilty, the member shall be immediately removed from the Council and may only rejoin with a unanimous vote from the Council.

**Sec. 4- **The structure and function of the Council is detailed as follows:

A. The Council shall meet at one place with 3/4 of members required to achieve quorum. If physical meeting is not possible, reliable and instantaneous two-way audio-visual contact may be substituted for physical presence. Meetings shall be kept as short as possible, but the sum total of meeting time shall not exceed 24 hours per 36 hour period. If time runs out, the current topic on the floor is adjourned until the next time period.

B. The members of the Council may appoint, by 3/4 vote of those present, a member to act as Council Leader. The Council Leader shall keep order during the sessions, focus discussion on the topic currently being considered, monitor the amount of time the Council is in session and declare the passage or failure of a proposal being considered. A Council Leader may be appointed for the current session only, for all the sessions in the current time period of 36 hours, or to a term which shall not exceed 6 months. While acting as Council Leader, the member retains all responsibilities of voting and debate as he had before and shall only gain the rights mentioned above.

C. All Council members shall have the following rights of action while the Council is in session: The right to introduce proposals and amendments to this Constitution, the right to approve or reject stated proposals and amendments with or without explanation when asked for a vote on the matter, the right to suggest alterations to the current proposal or amendment, the right to debate (in public or in private) with the proposer of the proposal or amendment concerning why it was proposed and any issues that may be brought up concerning the proposal or amendment.

D. The right of debate is the only right that is retained when the Council is not in session. The debate may be as public or as private as the debaters desire, provided all involved directly in the debate agree on the degree of privacy. Debates may consist of two or more Council members, but non-Council members cannot directly participate and must only act as witnesses. Debates must not exceed 12 hours in a 24 hour period nor can they overlap with a Council session unless the entire Council is allowed to hear the debate.

E. Human and Digimon membership in the council will _only_ be divided up for bookkeeping purposes; this shall not and must not imply or otherwise be interpreted as any degree of inequality between the members of the Council, and any attempt to do so may constitute an impeachable offense.

**Sec. 5- **In the absence of any other legal authority concerning Digimon-human relations, the statements of the Council are legally arbitrary and binding and will be enforced by the Council. If other legal authorities do exist concerning these relations, the statements are non-binding and act as recommendations for these other authorities to accept or reject as they will. If the laws of the other authority conflict with those given by the Council, Article 2 shall give the guidelines for which set of rules shall be accepted.

**Article 4: **Acceptance of this Constitution shall be considered a gesture of solidarity or goodwill toward the Digidestined. Similarly, rejection of the Constitution or failure to follow its precepts may be considered a symbol of defiance, rebellion or hostility and will be treated as such.

**Sec. 1-** If rejection of the Constitution or refusal to obey it is explained in that it does not follow the principles set out in Articles 1 and 2, the one who is rejecting the Constitution or refusing to obey it shall be placed into a public debate with the entire Council in order that the defier may attempt to convince the Council how its actions deviate from the intent of Articles 1 and 2. If a simple majority of the Council members agree with him, he may suggest a remedy which shall be treated as a proposal or amendment; if this does not happen, the defier is considered to be in defiance of the Constitution and will be treated as an enemy.

**Sec. 2- **Section 1 shall only apply if no other legal authority in the area of Digimon-human relations exists in the area where the defier lives. In all other situations, Section 5 of Article 3 shall apply over Section 1 of this Article.

**Article 5: **All members of the Council of the Digidestined must, upon assuming membership, take the following oath: "I, (name), do solemnly swear to protect and uphold the words of the First Constitution and the principles they are based on with whatever I power I have been given to enforce them. I shall not cause needless strife in either human or Digital worlds nor use the authority given me as a Council member in situations where the Constitution has no power of enforcement. I swear this in the presence of my peers and equals, and I will do the duties expected of a member of this Council."

**Sec. 1- **Alterations and changes (including deletions and additions) may be proposed in a session of Council at any time, but _must _be unanimously accepted before being implemented.

**We the undersigned do draft and agree to adhere by this Constitution as the first members of the Council of the Digidestined:**

**Taichi Kamiya Agumon**

**Yamato Ishida Gabumon**

**Koushiro Izumi Tentomon**

**Takashi Takeru Patamon**

**Hikari Kamiya Gatomon**

**Davis Motomiya Veemon**

**Ken Ichijouji Wormmon**


End file.
